Ferrari ‘didn’t even ask’ Mercedes if Hamilton could make test debut this year · RaceFans

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur says there was no realistic chance Lewis Hamilton would be able to make his test debut for the team before the end of the year.

However he has allowed outgoing Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz Jnr to appear for Williams in the Abu Dhabi test as a token of appreciation for his service for the team.

Asked if he had approached Mercedes team principal and personal friend Toto Wolff about releasing Hamilton to Ferrari for the test, Vasseur said: “No, they have a contract. I’ve not even asked Toto.”

“There’s a contract. You have to respect this,” he continued. “And it’s not because we are doing something for Carlos that everybody has to do the same.”

Wolff explained Mercedes have planned a series of events following the end of the season to commemorate their record-breaking partnership together, which meant he was unable to offer Ferrari the same courtesy.

“Fred didn’t ask,” Wolff said. “I think it’s different if you’re maybe going to Williams, but we have contractual agreements with sponsors.

“We’re having a farewell for Lewis, we have lots of activities that are planned. He and I, we spoke about it shortly and he said ‘I guess that’s not going to work’. I said ‘yeah, I don’t think it’s going to work and that was the whole thing. So I don’t think Fred is particularly sad.”

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Sainz will leave Ferrari at the end of the year, his fourth season with them, to join Williams as Hamilton replaces him for 2025. Although Sainz is under contract with Ferrari until the end of the year, Williams confirmed that their new driver will participate in the post-Abu Dhabi test day in the FW46.

Vasseur says that he granted permission for Sainz to join his new team before his contract expired as a gesture of appreciation for the work Sainz has done for Ferrari over the previous four seasons.

“I wanted to thank Carlos for the collaboration and I don’t want to block him or whatever,” Vasseur said.

“I think he did a very good job with us this season and a very professional one, because it would have been easy [form him] to, not give up, but not have such a professional attitude. And for me, the best way to thank Carlos was also to give him the opportunity to do the test with Williams.”

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