Lewis Hamilton has revealed he was approached by one of the other top three teams prior to re-signing with Mercedes for a further two years, with that announcement coming on Thursday.
Though in the final year of his contract, the world champion was widely expected to remain with the German manufacturer for 2019 and beyond with only the length of time it took to put pen to paper really causing somewhat of a stir.
Perhaps that is why then, the 33-year-old was offered the chance to leave Mercedes and join another of the top three teams.
“One did,” he said, without saying who.
The likelihood is that it would have been Red Bull as Daniel Ricciardo is himself yet to commit for 2019 and the Milton Keynes outfit would probably be more willing to risk a Hamilton/Verstappen partnership than Ferrari would consider a Hamilton/Vettel one.
It means very little anyway as the likelihood is now the four-time champion, who has won three with Mercedes since joining in 2013, will end his career with the team and perhaps his comments about why the deal was only two years indicated that this will be his last.
“We were talking about doing three [years] but Formula 1 is in quite a…” he began, referring to the ongoing efforts by owners Liberty Media to overhaul the regulations both sporting and commercial.
“The shapes are shifting a little bit, obviously F1 is not committed to all the teams moving forwards beyond 2021 just yet and I’m interested to see how that all plays out.
“So it didn’t make sense for me to commit into the unknown even though it’s easy for me to imagine just being with Mercedes so that’s not the issue.
“It’s impossible to say where I’m going to be in two years, what I’m going to feel like in two years’ time,” he added
“All I can tell you is I still feel pretty great. I wasn’t expecting to be as excited as I am now in this signing to extend. I’m also very conscious of how long it is beyond that time.”
