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Just before last week’s announcement, the most preferred location for Lewis Hamilton in 2024 was Italy. That’s right, the entire Formula 1 world was on the verge of seeing the most iconic team: Ferrari and a 7x champion come together, yet again, to possibly forge yet another dynasty. Alas, that never materialized. But if Hamilton’s camp wants you to believe that there was absolutely no truth in the Ferrari rumors, then some new facts have come to the forefront.

Hamilton was being offered a whopping $49,000,000 a year offer to switch from Brackley to Maranello. And while, in public, Hamilton and his team never really admitted to having chats with the Maranello-based team, in reality, a deal was negotiated between the iconic duo.

Shocking revelations about Lewis Hamilton – Ferrari saga

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On the face of it, Hamilton supposedly turned Ferrari CEO John Elkann down with a simple ‘No, thanks.’. However, if the latest reports are to be believed, things had escalated to an extent where team principal, Frederic Vasseur was required to intervene.

According to reports, “During the month of August, Charles [Leclerc] dined with Vasseur at his house in the south of France and Lewis Hamilton also spent another evening dining with Fred.” 

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While Hamilton has now tied himself down to Mercedes on a two-year deal worth an eye-watering $127,000,000, Leclerc may actually be ruing a missed opportunity.

Charles Leclerc’s missed Hamilton opportunity

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Leclerc has one clear objective in mind: to become a World Champion, preferably with the Prancing Horse. That being said, he did not underestimate the value Hamilton could’ve actually brought to his own championship bid if he was paired with the 7x champion.

via Reuters

Now, in hindsight, Leclerc may actually be ruing a missed opportunity to collaborate with the Brit. Why so? When quizzed about entertaining the thought of teaming up with him, Leclerc had declared, “Lewis is such an incredible driver, has achieved so much in the sport, so I think anybody on the grid would love to have Lewis as a team-mate, as everybody would learn a lot from him.”

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Watch this Story | Despite Recent $1 Million Loss, Neymar Jr Spotted Gambling at the 2023 Monaco GP 

Can we see Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton pair up in the future? 

Written by

Anirban Aly Mandal

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Anirban Aly Mandal is a senior F1 writer at EssentiallySports, with over 500 articles published on the platform. Anirban's love for F1 started when he discovered a copy of F1 2014 while playing on his computer, and he has since then dived deep into the world of motorsports. Anirban's expertise goes beyond just writing - he has also written several academic papers focused on the domain of motorsports.
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Edited by

Akash Pandhare