© Sulay Kelly for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
F1 personality Matt Bishop says when he asked Lewis Hamilton back in 2015 if he thinks he’ll stay at Mercedes ‘until he retires’, Lewis said: “What I’d really like to do, one day, is drive for Ferrari.”
Amid discussions regarding Lewis Hamilton’s decision to join Ferrari in 2025, F1 personality Matt Bishop recounted an interesting story from 2015.
According to Bishop, back in 2015 while he was working as communications director for McLaren, he had a chat with Lewis in a bar in Japan, and it is there that the Briton revealed his wish to join Ferrari in the future.
At the time Bishop noted to Lewis that he looks “pretty well set at Merc”, to which Lewis replied: “Yeah, it’s great, I want to win a few championships if I can.”
Bishop then said: “You probably will. Do you want to do a Stirling Moss?”
“What do you mean?” Lewis replied.
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“I mean, do you want to race for Merc then become a kind of lifetime ambassador for them? I bet they’d be up for that,” Bishop continued.
“I don’t know. Maybe I’ll want to do other stuff after I stop racing,” Lewis said and when asked if he wanted to get involved with music, he replied: “Yeah, maybe, and other stuff, too.”
Bishop then asked Lewis is he thinks he’ll “stay at Merc until you retire?”
To Bishop’s surprise, Lewis then said: “What I’d really like to do, one day, is drive for Ferrari.”
“That would be a great way to end my F1 career, wouldn’t it? To win championships for McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari?” the Briton continued.
“It really would,” Bishop concluded.
This interaction was described by Bishop in his Motorsport Magazine column, and he proceeded to give his analysis of Lewis’ current Ferrari move.
“So there you have it, Ferrari has always been part of his grand plan,” Bishop wrote.
“The Scuderia will pay him a king’s ransom next year, obviously, but he already earns megabucks at Mercedes. His move is not about money, therefore. Is it about legacy? Yes, in part, surely.
“But it is also about taking on a challenge,” he concluded.
