In recent days, F1 news has been dominated by rumors that Lewis Hamilton is in talks with Ferrari over a possible switch from Mercedes. After Ferrari has shrouded itself in silence for days, the Italian brand was forced to respond in the run-up to the race in Monaco.
Lewis Hamilton is rumored to have been in talks with John Elkann, the chairman of Stellantis and Ferrari. There would even have been a multimillion-dollar offer on the table (Ferrari wants to give Lewis Hamilton a $50 million contract). The rumor mill then only increased and that led to Ferrari responding to the rumors today.
Speaking to the media in Monaco, Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur responded to rumors that Ferrari approached Lewis Hamilton.
“As a joke I could say that you sent Sainz to Audi two weeks ago and you sent Leclerc to Mercedes a week ago and now I am alone and have no drivers left,” Vasseur made a reference to the rumors that the have appeared in the media in recent weeks about Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.
“But you all know that during this phase of the season there is a different story every week. We have not made an offer to Lewis Hamilton. We didn’t do it, we didn’t have any conversations.”
“I think every team on the grid would like to have Hamilton on the grid at some point, but it would be bullshit not to say something like that.”
“If I’ve talked to Hamilton, I’ve talked to him every race weekend for the last 20 years. I don’t want to stop having conversations with him because you are simply chasing me to see what I do.”
Vasseur says he is also not worried about the ‘messages’ that have been circulating about Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.
“They didn’t have to reassure me last week when you sent Carlos to Sauber and Charles to Mercedes,” said Vasseur. “They didn’t come to me to say, ‘Fred don’t worry, it’s not true’. It’s just us, there are rumors every week, new rumors will pop up but we just focus on the race weekend.”