Lewis Hamilton is on Ferrari’s radar as their top pick for the 2024 season. The Italian team is ready to offer the 7x world champion a $50 Million contract in a bid to win their first title in over 15 years.
However, Sky Sports Ted Kravitz believes the Briton won’t be interested in Ferrari’s lowball offer. The F1 pundit claims the Mercedes driver earns more than Ferrari offered to pay with his current team.
Kravitz believes Hamilton will stay with the Silver Arrows and sign a new deal before the end of the season. However, it will be interesting to see if Ferrari offers the racer an enormous pay hike, which could interest him to move to Maranello.
Ted Kravitz Believes Ferrari should double their offer to Lewis Hamilton
Currently, Hamilton earns close to $45 Million with Mercedes and is the 2nd highest-paid driver on the F1 grid. Hence, Ted Kravitz believes, Ferrari’s offer will not interest him as it would give no incentive to the 7x world champion.
Kravitz shared on the Sky Sports F1 podcase, “Firstly, I think the £40 Million ($50 Million) offer is a bit of a low-ball offer for Lewis Hamilton. It’s probably £5 Million ($7 Million) less than what he’s on at the moment and is something Mercedes are going to offer.”
He commented, “If it was £80 Million ($100 Million) that John Elkann had said then that would get people’s attention.” However, Kravitz stated the Italian team is also the wealthiest in the current grid.
Ferrari is interested in signing top talents from their rivals to reform their team. If the team deems Hamilton a necessity in their plans to win the 2024 title, then they won’t hesitate to splurge on singing the driver.
Kravitz believes that Hamilton will most likely sign an extension with Mercedes. However, with the Silver Arrows yet to finalize his revised pay, the Briton is keeping his options open.
Hamilton wants to be the highest-paid driver claims Helmut Marko
In 2021, Lewis Hamilton was dethroned by Max Verstappen in the title race. Soon the Dutchman overtook the Mercedes driver as the highest-paid driver on the F1 grid.
Since then, Hamilton has been struggling on track. The driver recorded a winless campaign in 2022, and it appears, his streak could stretch for another year. This is why the driver might be considering a move to Ferrari, according to Red Bull’s Helmut Marko.
Marko told F1 Insider, “There are two things that bother Hamilton. Firstly, he is no longer the world champion, and it will be difficult for him to be the world champion again. He knows there is no place for him at Red Bull. And whether Ferrari will be better for him in sporting terms than Mercedes is not set in stone.”
He continued, “In addition, Lewis is not happy because he is no longer the highest-earning driver in Formula 1. This is Max Verstappen now. At least that could change with Ferrari’s help.”
The 7x world champion is 38 years old and is nearing the twilight years of his F1 career. The driver has expressed his wish to retire at Mercedes once he achieves his 8th title. However, with the silver arrows underperforming, he would be thinking of the next best team to help him achieve his goal.
