Lewis Hamilton has been linked to Ferrari several times during his Formula 1 career, as recently as earlier this season.
Until Hamilton’s contract extension with Mercedes was announced ahead of the recent Italian Grand Prix, his future was one of the biggest talking points.
Given how big a name Hamilton is, it’s completely understandable why he was linked to the likes of Ferrari, but it also makes complete sense why negotiations with the Silver Arrows took so long.
Following the conclusion of the 2022 season, both Hamilton and team principal Toto Wolff noted that talks would take place during the winter break ahead of 2023, making many believe that a new contract would be done and dusted before the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
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This wasn’t the case, something which led to rumours that the seven-time World Champion was waiting to see if Mercedes improved.
The longer it took for an announcement to be made, the more time it gave for rumours to spread linking him with other sides.
Ferrari were the side who continued to come up whenever Hamilton’s future was discussed, with the Italians being a team that the 103-time race winner has shown an interest in before.
It was reported that the 38-year-old received an offer to join the Maranello-based team directly from Ferrari chairman John Elkann but rejected the approach.
Both Ferrari and Hamilton attempted to quash suggestions of talks between the pair; however, the Stevenage-born driver has since revealed that some talks did take place, only for nothing to materialise due to the driver not being “ready to move to Italy”.
“Okay, we’ve definitely had a few irrelevant conversations. I know a lot of good people there. But I never felt ready to move to Italy,” Hamilton revealed to Swiss newspaper Blick.
Since rejecting Ferrari, Hamilton signed a two-year contract extension with Mercedes, keeping him with the Brackley-based team until the end of 2025 at the earliest.
Having joined the side back in 2013, his new deal will take him into a 13th campaign with Mercedes, a number which is unlucky for some but could prove to be the year that the veteran claims an unprecedented eighth world title.
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Talking of numbers, he admits that the actual length of his contract has increased to “over 200 pages”, double what it used to be.
Despite its length, Hamilton does read every page of his contract, to know “exactly” what he’s agreeing to.
“Of course I want to know exactly what’s in there,” he said. “[It used to be 80 pages long] but now it’s over 200 pages or a damn book. And that takes you days!”