Hamilton free to talk to Mercedes engineersprior to end of McLaren contract

Lewis Hamilton and soon to be team-mate Nico Rosberg (© McLaren)

McLaren have given Lewis Hamilton permission to begin work with Mercedes before his current contract with the Woking team has expired.

The British driver will officially become a member of the Mercedes team on January 1st - once his McLaren contract has come to an end.

However he is limited in what he can do, he told the Daily Telegraph.

"I won't be doing much technical work with Mercedes," he said. "But Martin [Whitmarsh] says I am allowed to talk to people."

The 2008 champion says he's looking forward to a long break and far less PR commitments in 2013.

"I am going to have the biggest holiday I have had in a long, long time," he added. "I look forward to having, like, a third of the PR events that I have here. Maybe even a quarter. To having a bit more time in my life to be able to train and prepare. It will be a new car and a new experience and it is going to be interesting."

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