Update: Lewis Hamilton suffers major blow after Manchester United takeover hope News

Lewis Hamilton’s hopes of investing in Manchester United may be dented after his vegan burger chain shut down across the UK

Hopes of Lewis Hamilton becoming a minority investor in Manchester United may have taken a hit after one of his business ventures shutdown.

BBC Sport reported earlier this month that Man United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe could make a swoop for Mercedes Formula 1 senior performance simulation engineer Michael Sansoni. The move would aim to ‘revolutionise’ United’s data analysis.

Sansoni has close ties to Hamilton having become the seven-time World Champion’s trackside performance engineer back in January 2023. Despite the two parties now having been separated since Hamilton joined Ferrari this year, the pair have a chance of reconnecting at United – but this prospect has recently taken a hit.

There was speculation regarding a potential investment opportunity for Hamilton due to his friendship with Ratcliffe with INEOS owning a 33.3% stake in Mercedes Formula 1 team. But it’s the British driver’s business ventures that could weaken the chance of him becoming a minority owner in the club.

Neat Burger, a vegan burger chain co-launched by Hamilton and Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio, has had to close down all their branches. After suffering back-to-back losses in 2021 and 2022, the burger chain was left with two branches in the UK this year. They have now been shutdown and the company has pulled out of the UK market completely.

It is not known what damage this will do to Hamilton’s £350m net worth as reported by The Sunday Times, but he will still likely have a nice chunk of money in his pocket. His net worth still falls short of INEOS’ £1.25 billion stake in United, but Hamilton has spoken previously about being involved in the club’s ownership.

He told talkSPORT: “I am very close with Jim, so I am aware of where he is at [with United]. We talk a lot about football as he is very passionate about it.

“We have great discussions about what his team is doing, we talk about how Arsenal (the team who Hamilton supports) is playing. Obviously, he is from Manchester, so that is his dream home… where he comes from. But there is no further information I can give you on that.

“Jim’s part boss but a partner – I’d say we’re more partners because we’re in this together, and I hope in future to do something with Jim and build with him.

“I don’t know where that will be or what that will be, so I can’t really say. I haven’t had a call from him asking if I want to be involved in [a Man United takeover bid] just yet…

“But I do want to get more and more involved in teams because I really do believe in black ownership – there is a lack of it in sports – and black equity. Again, there is a real lack of that.”

Sansoni’s potential appointment would focus on transforming the club’s underwhelming performances using advanced data analytics – a key trend in modern football, with metrics like expected goals (xG) now central to strategy.

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