Lewis Hamilton responds to Ferrari F1 exit rumours with contract detail

Lewis Hamilton dismissed rumours of a 2026 Ferrari exit

Lewis Hamilton has responded to the rumours linking him to a Ferrari exit at the end of 2026, sharing details on the length of his contract and when extension negotiations would usually begin.

The seven-time champion signed a multi-year contract with the Maranello outfit for the start of the 2025 season. Since joining the team, Hamilton has struggled to adapt to such a change. While he secured a sprint race win in China, he is yet to celebrate on a grand prix podium, with his best finish at the time of writing being P4 in the Emilia Romagna, Austrian, British, and United States Grands Prix.

After Haas rookie driver Oliver Bearman impressed with a fourth-place finish at the Mexico Grand Prix, rumours began to circulate suggesting the 20-year-old could replace Hamilton at Ferrari for the 2027 season.

Hamilton shot the rumours down ahead of the Brazil Grand Prix.

"I have a pretty long contract," he told the media. "Normally, when you do a contract, it's usually the year before you start to talk about it. I'm a little bit far from that right now."

Turning his attention to the weekend ahead in São Paulo, Hamilton added: "I think we've definitely made a lot of progress over the past month or so, the last couple of months. In the last race, obviously Charles got a great result. I think that's going to vary from race to race, depending on the track that we're at.

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Lars Baron / LAT Images via Getty Images

"This is the first time driving for Ferrari here, so their car looked pretty good here last year. I don't know what it's going to feel like here, but I'm definitely hoping. Obviously, they resurfaced part of the track as well, so it's pretty new, the circuit.

"I'm hoping that we can run the car as close to the limit as possible and get a good result. Hopefully, with the nice Brazil weather changing, maybe we can have a good weekend."

The Brazil Grand Prix weekend is set to feature the penultimate sprint race of the season, meaning the drivers will have just one practice session before heading straight into sprint qualifying later today.