With Mercedes failing to provide Lewis Hamilton with a championship-winning car for back-to-back seasons, rumors began to grow that the seven-time world champion would make a jump to Ferrari. Now, Hamilton himself has come up to snub all the rumors as per Blick, and links of him making the switch to the Prancing Horse.
Rumors of Hamilton growing frustrated with Mercedes took a lot of traction this silly season. In fact, Ferrari was reportedly interested in offering Hamilton $50,000,000 a year! Admittedly, all these talks emerged amidst Hamilton’s ongoing negotiations with his current team, Mercedes.
✌🏾 more @MercedesAMGF1 pic.twitter.com/Tm9dkJ1ubN
— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) August 31, 2023
Hamilton did not have a sweet and subtle contract extension at the Silver Arrows. However, after a long tussle between him and Toto Wolff’s side, both parties agreed to extend their partnership for two more years, at least.
Hamilton snubbed Ferrari, extended with Mercedes
Along with Hamilton, his teammate George Russell too, saw his contract get renewed until the end of the 2025 season. This means the Silver Arrows will have the same driver pairing until the end of 2025.
Therefore, he now opened up on his talks about moving to Italy to join Ferrari. When asked if he ever received an offer to move to Maranello, he said as per Blick, “Never. Okay, I’m sure we’ve had some trivial conversations. I know a lot of good people there, but I never felt ready to move to Italy.”
Factory visits with LH. Working together to prep for the six remaining races of the season. 👊 pic.twitter.com/rxONbCbSqx
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) September 29, 2023
The German team offered their star driver a sum of $196 million for two years, according to a report published by Fox Sports. This will see the 38-year-old stay with Mercedes for 13 full seasons, having made his switch from McLaren back in 2013.
How is Lewis Hamilton performing in 2023 with Mercedes?
Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes have been performing fairly better than last year. In 2022, they finished in P3 behind Ferrari. However, this year saw a bit of an improvement from the Silver Arrows.
As for Hamilton, he is in P3 in the driver’s championship with 190 points. He is only behind the Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. This makes him the best non-Red Bull driver on the grid.
Nevertheless, Mercedes and its drivers are hopeful bouncing back from their slump, and get back to winning ways in 2024. Banking on the improvements they made this year by getting rid of their zero sidepod, experts believe they can pull off some stunning performances next year.
