Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has appeared to rule out ever attempting to bring in Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen as it would ‘take too long’ for things to settle down. Ferrari have their driver line-up already sewn up for the 2024 season, but questions are already being raised on Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc’s future with the Scuderia.
Reports emerged earlier this year that Ferrari were readying an audacious attempt to sign Hamilton with the Brit’s contract at Mercedes expiring at the end of the year. Both Mercedes and Hamilton rubbished the rumours with both parties happy to continue and the expectation of an extension to be agreed soon.
But there has long been an underlying link between Hamilton and Ferrari with the Brit previously admitting it would be a “dream” for him to drive for the iconic F1 team. Verstappen, whose contract with Red Bull runs until 2028, has also admitted Ferrari would represent the ‘dream team’ for him to race for.
He said recently: “They often ask me if I have a dream team: I know that Ferrari has a unique history in Formula 1. It’s a team that would be great to run for.” Ferrari have a history of snapping up the best drivers in F1 with stars such as Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen, Niki Lauda and Juan Manuel Fangio among many others.
They hold the record for most Drivers’ Championship titles with 15 and bringing in either Hamilton or Verstappen would present a huge coup for the historic F1 team. They’ve not won the Drivers’ Championship since Raikkonen’s title in 2007
But Vasseur believes the logistics involved in taking either Hamilton or Verstappen would be too tricky to make it happen. “There are a lot of big names in Formula 1,” Vasseur said.
“I often get asked about Max, Lewis, good engineers and so on. Of course you would like that, but in the end it doesn’t work that way.
“You have to understand the weaknesses and improve there step by step. I wonder if big names, who have not been involved in the Formula 1 project from the start, do they add something?
“If they join the team and then want to change everything, then you are talking about two to three years. That would take too long.”
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