According to reports, Lewis Hamilton may have to wait before 2025 before holding the Ferrari handle.
Mercedes wants to maintain him for the year -end promotion commitment, so seven champions will not participate in the season later this year.
Amid an eventful final year with the Silver Arrows, Hamilton admitted he can’t wait for the season to be over and, after finishing 10th in Sao Paulo, said he was already looking forward to Christmas.
Nevertheless, his sponsorship functions of Mercedes mean that the chances of their 12 -year relationships, which ended immediately after the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi on December 8, are weak.
All designers will carry out a tire test two days after this race and Mercedes gave no sign that Hamilton can avoid these responsibilities.
Ferrari had wanted the Briton to take part in a test on the Tuesday after the season finale but this was rejected, with Autosport saying Hamilton must get ahead of title sponsors Mercedes Petronas on test day.
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur said the new driver would only need a few days to adapt, given his experience.
“I don’t know if he needs a few hours of acclimatisation,” he said. “He has enough experience to be quick from day one, or at least very soon. We will have one or two days of TPC [Testing of Previous Cars], plus the Bahrain test, and that will be enough.”
During the off-season, F1’s TPC rules allow teams to run cars that have been designed and built to comply with the technical regulations of one of the three calendar years immediately preceding the calendar year preceding the championship year
