In the latest revelation, Lewis Hamilton reportedly refused the offer made by Ferrari President John Elkann to join the Italian team. However, former F1 champion Mika Hakkinen, as per Motorsport Italy, has now come to the surface and advised Hamilton not to keep aside emotions while deciding on his future in Formula 1.
🚨| Lewis Hamilton has rejected an offer to drive for Ferrari in 2024!
Ferrari president John Elkann contacted and submitted an offer to Lewis, who politely declined.
LH only wants Mercedes 🖤 pic.twitter.com/Z3ZW8Ktu7H
— Mercedes-AMG F1 News (@MercedesNewsUK) August 12, 2023
Undoubtedly, with his 10-year-long association with the Silver Arrows, Hamilton can be considered ‘Mr. Mercedes‘. And multiple times, he has stated that he wants to end his career with the team that gave him six titles in that period.
But Mercedes is no more the force of the last decade. And for someone as ambitious as Hamilton, it should be a deal breaker as his current contract is due for an extension.
Mika Hakkinen advises Lewis Hamilton not to be emotional
With Ferrari interested and Mercedes’s contract running out at the end of this year, Hamilton has to decide about his future. However, Hakkinen suggests to the seven-time world champion not to be emotional during this process.
“He has to analyze the future of Mercedes: he has to analyze who designs the next cars, everyone’s motivations, the money available. He has to forget about emotions, he has to make a cold calculation for how difficult it is when you have achieved so much success with a team,” said Hakkinen.
While Hakkinen has given a huge piece of advice to Hamilton, the Mercedes star seems to be determined to remain at Brackley with him and Toto Wolff already remaining that only trivial parts of the new contract are remaining. However, Wolff also gave a big revelation.
No Mercedes tie-up after retirement
In the initial reports regarding the details of the new contract, Hamilton was reported to get an ambassadorial role at Mercedes after retirement. The alleged amount could have bagged him $250 million for the next 10 years.
However, as per Wolff, that’s not the case. The Mercedes boss in his recent update revealed that no such thing will be included for Hamilton in the new contract.
Wolff reasoned that since Hamilton is continuing with them for the foreseeable future then it’s not rational to have such a clause. By his own admission, the 38-year-old driver wants to be in F1 for the next five years. But it’s upon Mercedes to keep the alliance this long.
