Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur was adamant that the Scuderia have not offered a contract to Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton to drive for the team in Formula 1.
The seven-time world champion was thought to be on the Prancing Horse’s radar for a race seat in 2024, especially if Charles Leclerc were to leave amid his own dismay at Ferrari’s start to the season.
But speaking ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix, Vasseur moved to quash those rumours sensationally saying that no contract offer had been made by Ferrari.
“We are not sending an offer to Lewis, we didn’t do it,” Vasseur told select members of the press, including Total-Motorsport.com, ahead of the 2023 Monaco Grand Prix.
“We didn’t have any discussions. I think every team on the grid would like to have Hamilton at some stage.
“I like to discuss with Hamilton about the last 20 years and I don’t want to stop discussing that with him because you are chasing me.”
Qualifying focus
Red Bull have been the superior team on race pace so far in 2023 and Ferrari have even found themselves behind Aston Martin and Mercedes at times on a Sunday.
But Monaco offers a totally different challenge with all eyes on Saturday’s qualifying session thanks to the tight nature of the track making it tough to overtake.
Ferrari have been more competitive over one lap and Vasseur has his eyes firmly set on Saturday ahead of a big weekend for the team.
“What you can guarantee is that qualifying pace is much more important at Monaco than it was at Miami and Baku,” Vasseur added. “We are fully focused on quali.
“This track also suits the car a little bit more than the others so we are hopeful of a good result.”
