Hamilton banishes Ferrari rumour with new Mercedes deal
F 1 superstar Lewis Hamilton has flatly denied suggestions that he has had discussions about a possible move to Ferrari at the end of this year and has made it clear that he expects to agree a new deal with Mercedes within a few weeks.
The seven-times world champion’s position was backed up by Fred Vasseur, the Ferrari team principal, who also said there had been no talks.
“I think every single team on the grid would like to have Hamilton at one stage,” Vasseur said. “It would be bullshit to not say something like this. We didn’t have discussions.”
Toto Wolff, the Mercedes principal, has said many times that he was relaxed and confident about reaching an agreement to extend Hamilton’s stay with the team. The 38-year-old driver has been with Mercedes since 2013 and has also indicated that he expects to end his career there.
In earlier contract cycles Hamilton has negotiated his own deals, but has now delegated that task to his management team.
Hamilton said: “I have my team focused on that so I can just do my job. It’s a much better position than I was in before. I used to do my negotiations on my own and it was very stressful. I’m glad I don’t have to do that anymore.”
“My team is working closely behind the scenes with Toto. We’re almost at the end of having a contract ready.”
Speculation about a possible move to another team had been strengthened by Mercedes’ recent struggles to produce a competitive car. Hamilton has not won a Formula One race since 2021, finished sixth in last year’s drivers’ championship and is currently fourth in the standings, more than 50 points adrift of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen after only five races.
Speaking before Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix, Hamilton said Mercedes’ problems had no bearing on his thinking. “We’re still a championship-winning team,” he said. “It’s just we’ve had the wrong car and some decisions that have been made over the past two years that have not been ideal. We’re working our way through that.”
Evidence of that work became clear when the mechanics began to assemble this weekend’s cars in the Mercedes garage and unveiled a radical redesign of the W14’s sidepods that confirmed they have ditched the controversial zero/skinny sidepod concept and reverted to something much more in line with what other leading teams have been using.
The new design should have been introduced at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Italy last weekend, but that race was called off after heavy flooding in northern Italy. Its value will be hard to ascertain in Monaco due to the unique and quirky nature of the principality’s street circuit, but Mercedes’ engineers and drivers are confident it will show its worth when the F1 circus moves on to Spain next week.
“I was a little bit gutted when the last race got cancelled, because I was excited to try this new package,” Hamilton said. “This is not the best platform track-wise to really see those changes come to fruition, but we’ll hopefully experience that more next week.”
