Marchionne says Hamilton ending his career with Ferrari would be a "privilege"
- Published on 03 Aug 2017 11:29
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- By: Fergal Walsh
Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne has admitted that it would be a privilege for Lewis Hamilton to retire from F1 after racing for Ferrari. The Brit has been linked to a seat with the Italian outfit while current Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel has been rumoured to be eyeing up Hamilton's seat at Mercedes.
Hamilton's contract with Mercedes expires at the end of the 2018 season and it is not yet clear what the three-time world champion will decide to do. Mercedes has stated multiple times that it is prepared to enter negotiation for a new deal.
"Hamilton's ending his career with Ferrari would be a privilege, but so far we have not gone far with such plans," Marchionne stated in Budapest. "I'm not talking about the future as we already have two great drivers with us."
Vettel's deal runs out at the end of this season, but it is already suggested that he is close to signing on or already has signed on with Ferrari for another three years. Over the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, it came about that Ferrari was going to announce its 2018 lineup in Monza. However, Marchionne has played that down.
"I have not heard if Maurizio Arrivabene intends to do so (announce the drivers) as I do not plan the schedules myself. But at this moment only 11 races have been run, with nine still to go. I have spoken openly about the situation with Sebastian, because if he wants to stay with us, he is more than welcome to do so. In Kimi's case, we're pretty sure or we know that he wants to stay."
"I'm happy with the season but there's still nine races," said the Italian-Canadian. "We have moved ahead of Mercedes in the drivers' championship, and we are closer in the constructors, which means we have great chances.
Fergal Walsh
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Replies (4)
Login to replymbmwe36
Posts: 533
No... just no!
f1fan0101
Posts: 1,804
I think a swap would be very interesting and highly entertaining. Very unlikely though
Wolfgang
Posts: 313
This is another political destabilization for Mercedes from Ferraris side.
It´s not only the fact they don´t publish the renewals of Vettels and Raikkonens contract but they also bring Hamiltons name into this game right now where Lewis definetely is going to think about. That includes a big headache at Toto and Niki.. :-)
All in all i must say that i see this with a certain smile on my face since Merc is always playing the "political"-card in the sense of accusing opponents for many things. Let´s take Niki´s statements on the Baku incident for example. Or the "team-order" (which wasn´t one in my eyes) at Monaco this year.
--> Not a single person from Ferrari said something about the obvious and public team order in Bahrain this year. Same has to be said about Hungary in the last week..
So i think this Ferrari statement and the deliberate delay of the renewals of their contracts is much more clever than all those other (Merc) attempts to destabilize Ferrari.
I quite like that. :-)
Hombibi
Posts: 137
Maybe lost in translation but a privilege to whom exactly?