The future of Lewis Hamilton was a huge talking point earlier in the season as there were rumors that he could join arch-rivals Ferrari. Moreover, the Briton himself admitted that he did have some conversations with certain representatives of the Italian outfit. However, none of the talks seemed to materialize as the 38-year-old ended up signing a two-year extension with the Silver Arrows. Now, several weeks after Hamilton extended his deal with Mercedes, team principal Toto Wolff has given his honest feelings about the seven-time champion talking to Ferrari before extending his $250,000,000 worth contract with his side.
Soon after Hamilton extended his contract with Mercedes, he himself admitted that he had a few “casual conversations” with Ferrari. While speaking to German newspaper Blick, he said, “Okay, I’m sure we’ve had a few casual conversations. I know a lot of good people there. But I never felt ready to move to Italy“.
Even though Ferrari were having such conversations with Hamilton, it did not bother Wolff. The Austrian was confident that Hamilton will extend his contract despite all the delay that took place in the negotiations.
Toto Wolff was always confident Lewis Hamilton was “not going anywhere“
Despite all the widespread speculation in the media, Toto Wolff has recently revealed in an interview about how Lewis Hamilton convinced him that he was “not going anywhere” despite his conversations with Ferrari. The Austrian began his remarks in a recent interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport by stating (as quoted by sportsmole.co.uk), “There was a bit of a delay but it was clear that it would end like this, with Lewis staying with us“.
The 51-year-old then explained why there was a delay by adding, “Some time ago Lewis told me ‘I saw John Elkann at dinner, but know that I’m not going anywhere’. And then when they wrote about his conversation with Ferrari, he said again ‘Toto, I’m not carrying out any negotiations’. There was never an inch of doubt in my mind“.
After stating the same, Wolff concluded his remarks by adding that he is “happy” to have both Hamilton and George Russell on the team. The Austrian believes that the 25-year-old is the future of Mercedes after Hamilton, “who grew up” with the side. As for the contract negotiations with Hamilton, Wolff revealed there was also a delay because of some minor hold-ups.
Wolff explains why there was a delay in Hamilton extending his deal
Soon after Lewis Hamilton extended his contract with Mercedes, Toto Wolff gave an interview to Autosport to explain why there was such a delay in confirming the same. The Austrian stated (as quoted by motorsportweek.com) that even though he and the 38-year-old were “clear on the major terms in June, July“, they took a bit of time to come to an agreement on some of the smaller topics such as marketing.
Hence, since there was a delay of more than a month in Hamilton finally extending his contract with Mercedes, it resulted in more and more speculations about his future as time passed by. It was only when the team confirmed on August 31 that the Briton had extended his contract with the side did the rumors stop.
