Ferrari chief drops fresh Lewis Hamilton hint after Toto Wolff debunks F1 talks

Ferrari ambassador Marc Gene has given a fresh indication that Lewis Hamilton will not be joining the team in the near future. F1 silly season has started early this year following reports that Ferrari were readying a mega-money offer to steal Hamilton from Mercedes.

There’s little over six months remaining on Hamilton’s contract with Mercedes and no progress appears to have been made. It’s been a regular theme throughout Hamilton’s 10 years with the Silver Arrows with contract negotiations going on until the final hour.

It was at the start of the 2021 season when Hamilton left it until one month before the first race of the year when he put pen to paper on a fresh deal. Negotiations have been ongoing for nearly a year now on Hamilton’s latest contract after both the Brit and Toto Wolff claimed last year that a new deal was close.

The delay has led to intense speculation on what the 38-year-old plans to do at the end of the year. Reports emerged last month that Ferrari were willing to test Hamilton’s loyalty to Mercedes with a contract worth in the region of £40million.

The speculation has since been rubbished by all parties involved with Hamilton stating: “I think naturally when you’re in contract negotiations, there’s always going to be speculation. Unless you hear from me, then that’s all it is.” Both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have brushed off suggestions they’re set to be replaced by Hamilton as well.

And now long-time Ferrari ambassador Gene has stated why he doesn’t think Hamilton will switch to the famous red F1 car. He told Sport: “I am not the one who decides the drivers, but knowing the Scuderia now it does not fit the philosophy and I see him ending his career at Mercedes.”

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Wolff has also hit out at the idea of Hamilton switching Mercedes for Ferrari in a move that would shake up the F1 grid.

The Mercedes team principal said: “We’ve had a pact and we’ve had that since many, many years, that we wouldn’t talk to any other driver before we have taken a decision to stay together or not, so I was never a millimetre in doubt that there were any discussions. Someone just placed that (story), maybe to, in a way, to play a role in what seemed to be negotiation, but it is not negotiation, it is sitting at a table and saying, ‘what is it we need to adapt to in the contract?’ So there’s nothing to it.

“The contract was ready in 2013, we’ve never really changed a lot of words in there… just the dates and the number of marketing days. I think that how it is at the moment with us, we’re in a super happy position with Lewis. There weren’t any stumbling blocks with the contract negotiations.”

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