Lewis Hamilton will be offered $75 million to leave Mercedes and make a blockbuster switch to Ferrari in 2024, according to reports.
The Daily Mail has reported that Ferrari president John Elkann is already in close discussions with Hamilton, who is out of contract at the end of this year and yet to renew terms with Mercedes.
Ferrari is prepared to start negotiations at £40 million (A$74.9 million), which is roughly in line with reports of his current salary. Neither Ferrari nor Mercedes would have trouble paying such an exorbitant sum, and the Briton would be unlikely to consider his wage decisive in any talks.
Ferrari is reportedly preparing for two eventualities in the event Hamilton can be coaxed from Mercedes to Maranello.
The first is that he replaces Carlos Sainz to partner Charles Leclerc in what would instantly become the strongest line-up in the sport.
Such a combination would allow Ferrari to stick to its promise to make Leclerc, 13 years Hamilton’s junior, the central pillar of its long-term strategy. Hamilton would essentially be sold as a top-up signing to take the team to a title-contending level.
But Ferrari is reportedly also prepared to lose Leclerc to induct Hamilton if either the team’s star Monegasque or the incoming Briton were to refuse to race alongside another alpha.
While Leclerc is widely seen as the sport’s fastest driver over a single lap and with the potential to win multiple championships, his propensity for high-speed crashes has drawn fire from critics, who argue he doesn’t have the temperament to lead Ferrari to the title.
Both Sainz and Leclerc are under contract next season and would have to be paid off, though neither would likely encounter much difficulty filling Hamilton’s vacancy at Mercedes.
Rumours emerged in the Italian media in late April that Leclerc was in talks with Mercedes boss Toto Wolff about a possible switch, though both denied the speculation.
Hamilton has insisted all year that he intends to sign a fresh contract lasting several seasons, and though he has admitted to contemplating a sensational Ferrari switch, he has added he would find it difficult to walk out on Mercedes, the team with which he’s become most closely associated.
“I’d be lying if I said I’d never thought about ending my career anywhere else,” he told ESPN. “I thought about and watched the Ferrari drivers on the screens at the track and of course you wonder what it would be like to be in red.
“But then I go to my team, to Mercedes, and this is my home. I’m happy where I am. I haven’t signed a contract yet, but we are working on one.”
Earlier in the year he told reporters that he saw himself being with Mercedes “until my last days”.
Hamilton has also said he wouldn’t use another team as leverage in negotiations with Mercedes boss Wolff.
But there’s also no getting around Mercedes’s lost competitiveness under the new era of regulations. Earlier this season the team admitted to making a major misstep with its car philosophy, and Hamilton chided the team for not heeding his feedback at the end of 2022.
Last year was the first in Hamilton’s career without a win, and he appears unlikely to mount the top step this year thanks to Red Bull Racing’s considerable pace advantage.
The Briton’s decision may hinge on the effectiveness of Mercedes’s Monaco upgrade package, which the team is billing as the first major step to changing the car’s philosophy.
If it were to fail to make the expected gains, Hamilton may choose to gamble the final chapter of his career on a romantic switch to motorsport’s most famous team.
But it’s deeply debatable whether Ferrari would offer Hamilton a faster route to a record-breaking eighth world championship than Mercedes.
Though Ferrari has been a faster qualifying car this year, the Mercedes has generally been the more effective operator in race conditions.
And while the Italian team appeared to be a title contender early last year, it has since slipped back from Red Bull Racing, and it was roiled by managerial changes during the off-season. The team has also reportedly lost more than a handful of long-serving engineers and high-profile leaders to rival teams.
Mercedes, however, has also lost several key personnel consistent with the sort of brain drain associated with other great teams at the end of super-dominant eras.
Other than a potential Ferrari offer, Hamilton would have few other options if he wanted to change teams but remain in the frontrunning pack.
Red Bull Racing is deeply unlikely to contemplate his services with Max Verstappen under contract until the end of 2028.
Aston Martin has emerged this year as a frontrunner, but Fernando Alonso is in place until at least the end of next year, while Lance Stroll races on a perpetual deal owing to his father’s ownership of the team.
