Lewis Hamilton apparently joked to th🐭e Ferrari vice-president in 2017 about eventually joining - seven🦂 years before he actually signed.

Hamilton will swap Mercedes for Ferrari in 2025 having activated a get-out clause in his current contract to pen a mul🍌ti-year agreement with the Italian team.

It is no secret that Hamilton has always been an admirer of Ferrari ro🌄ad cars and a visit to make a personal purchase resulted ꦑin an intriguing conversation with a key figure at the famous brand.

"Perhaps not everyone knows that Lewis 🦩has always been sensitiಞve to the fascination of the Prancing Horse,” vice-president Piero Ferrari told .

"He's a customer of ours! More than once🐷 he visited the factory.”

But not the F1 team itself.

"No, no,” Piero F💟errari explained. “He came as a buyer of our cars.

“He's not justꦓ a speed ace. He has a genuine love for super🎐cars.

“In his garage, our c♏ars could not be missing. One in p𝓰articular...

"The model that's called LaFerrari.

“Hamilton came to Maranello to give instructions o🅷n how to set up the car.

“It was on𝓡 thℱat occasion that we greeted each other cordially.

“And he said something to me that struck me...

"We had Sebastian Vette𒆙l꧂ in the team and we were happy with Seb.

“We had just renewed the contract with the German, which was going 🍨well.

“Lewis made a joke: ‘If y꧒ou waited twe🗹lve months, I'd come..."

Vettel renewed his Ferrari contract in 2017, mid-way th𝓰rough an ultimately unsuccessful partnership.

Was Hamilton dreaming of Ferrari seven years ago?

"I don't think so,” Piero Ferrari admitted.

“He has lived and is still living a 𝓡fantastic story with Mercedes.

“Bඣut certainly, as I sa🌊id at the beginning, he has never been indifferent to our history.

“He is also very attached to the le💞gend of motoring, as a child he had Ayrton Senna as an idol, in Merce✤des in 2013 he took the place of Michael Schumacher.

"Well, personally I'm very happy. A figure like Lewis꧒ fits perfectly wiཧth the Ferrari legend."