Hamilton spoke to Ferrari: "In the end it went like this"

Lewis Hamilton has been driving for Mercedes for eight seasons now and it also looks very much like he is going to end his career there. Last season in particular, however, there was talk that he might be considering a switch to Ferrari. Hamilton now admits that there have indeed been talks.

"We were never really close," says Hamilton in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport. "We talked on occasion but we didn’t go beyond understanding what options were on the table and they weren’t the right ones."

What exactly he meant by that is not entirely clear, but there was also a practical reason why it didn't come to more.

Timing is important in contract negotiations

“Our positions have never aligned. I think timing matters and things happen in the end for a reason. In recent seasons my contract always expired in years different from that of all the other drivers. In the end, it went like this.”

It remains to be seen whether Hamilton would have fitted in well with the Ferrari team. When he moved from McLaren to Mercedes, one of his conditions was that he had more freedom outside the car, also in the way he expresses himself. Like McLaren at the time, Ferrari is known for having quite strict regulations for its drivers.