Lewis Hamilton says he hopes to be a part of Mercedes “forever”, explaining that while a move to Ferrari was previously a dream he has now closed the door due to “timing”, and because he doesn’t believe “our values are aligned”.
Hamilton has been linked with the Scuderia for much of his glittering Formula 1 career, and rumours ramped up around a year ago when it emerged that the Englishman, who was considering his options with a Mercedes contract expiring at the end of 2020, had spoken with Ferrari chairman John Elkann. But it never went further than that, and since then Mercedes and Hamilton have clinched their seventh world championships, while Ferrari have slumped to sixth in the standings. Although Hamilton has yet to sign a new deal with Mercedes, he is ready to commit after F1 2020’s final three races and spoke at length about Ferrari in Thursday’s pre-Bahrain GP press conference.
“I was never close at all to ever leaving my team,” Hamilton said about his talks in 2019. “I think it’s only right as drivers, as people, when you’re looking at your next phase and committing to the next stage of your life you have to analyse what your options are and make sure you do your due diligence and have the pros and cons.
“I don’t know whether our values are aligned and timing… it just wasn’t meant to be.”
Hamilton has also referenced his meeting with Elkann in the Italian press recently, telling La Gazetto 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.”
And he went into detail about Ferrari during an interview with GQ, the magazine that has named him their ‘Game Changer of 2020’. Hamilton hinted that Ferrari weren’t diverse enough.
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