The news that Lewis Hamilton<\/a> would be trading Silver for Scarlet Red in 2025 stunned the world back in February. About nine months later, Fred Vasseur has now revealed some truths about the biggest news of the year. The team principal has revealed that moving to Ferrari was already “in his thoughts.”<\/p>\n Given that Lewis Hamilton signed a contract extension with Mercedes<\/a> in the summer of 2023, the news that came to follow in February was quite unexpected. On multiple occasions, the 7-time World Champion reiterated that he claimed Mercedes as his home and that his intentions were to retire at the German outfit.<\/p>\n However, when we entered into the new year, rumours about the move began swirling around. It wasn’t the first time such whispers had made their round throughout the paddock – it was pretty much routine, much like ‘Sergio Perez set to announce his retirement at the Mexico Grand Prix.’ To the surprise of many though, the rumours turned out to be true this time around.<\/p>\n On February 1, Ferrari announced that they had signed a multi-year deal with Lewis Hamilton, who shortly after confirmed the news.<\/p>\n It was quite the contradiction to the seemingly positive news from Mercedes in last year’s summer. Clearly, though, something happened behind the scenes that triggered Lewis Hamilton into activating a release clause in his one-plus-one deal. Perhaps it was the fact that Ferrari offered Hamilton a multi-year deal which naturally trumps a one-plus-one deal.<\/p>\n While many may have assumed that it took a lot for the Scuderia to convince the face of the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team<\/a> to jump ship, Fred Vasseur’s words contradict our initial assumptions.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t difficult actually. Ferrari has always been in his thoughts in some ways and now the stars have aligned.<\/p>\n \u201cBut he comes to win, not on vacation. And I\u2019m convinced that we have everything to try.\u201d – Vasseur told Gazzetta dello Sport<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n