Lewis Hamilton admits he is unsure whether Mercedes will allow him to start work at Ferrari before the 2025 F1 season and is determined to help his current team ‘get back to the top’ He insisted that he was giving his all.
Hamilton’s long and successful relationship with Mercedes will end at the end of this season, after the seven-time world champion announced in February that he would join Ferrari in 2025.
Lewis Hamilton gets an early start in his Ferrari?
The announcement shocked the F1 world, coming just five months after Hamilton signed a new two-year contract with Mercedes until the end of 2025.
With his move to Ferrari confirmed earlier this year, Hamilton faces the unusual prospect of spending the entire 2024 season at Mercedes, knowing that team and driver will soon part ways. There is.
Speaking to media such as PlanetF1.com’s Thomas Maher the morning after Hamilton’s bombshell statement, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said the team aims to prevent Hamilton from taking intimate secrets to his new employer. As a result, he acknowledged that 2024 could be a “difficult situation”.
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It’s not uncommon for drivers to be released from their existing contracts early ahead of a big winter transfer, and Hamilton’s former title rival Sebastian Vettel was released in November 2014, two months before officially joining the team. In April, his contract with Red Bull was terminated and he took part in a test with Ferrari at Fiorano. Scuderia.
Hamilton’s only career move was from McLaren to Mercedes at the start of 2013, but it remains to be seen whether he will be allowed to do the same.
According to German publication Motorsport-Total.com, he said:
“I don’t think I was at Mercedes until December.” [2012], when the first seat fitting took place after the end of the season. I don’t know what to do this time. ”
Hamilton was filmed biting a reporter who asked him about his impending move to Ferrari after a difficult Japanese Grand Prix that saw him drop significantly to ninth place on race day, continuing his worst start to an F1 season in history.
The 39-year-old is keen to finish well at Mercedes in 2024 and insists talking about life at Ferrari could be a distraction.
He explained: “Right now I want to finish on a good note. All my energy is going into that.
“Of course I am looking forward to the future, but we are in a difficult situation at the moment and that is my challenge.
“All my energy is going into finding out how I can get back to the top.
“How can we work with the boys? Can we give better reporting? Can we give them better direction?
“I’m a competitive person more than anything, so I want to win. Thinking about next year won’t fix that.”
Read next: Japanese Grand Prix conclusion: Red Bull effect, Ricciardo’s last chance, etc.
