{"id":394746,"date":"2026-01-06T06:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T06:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/394746\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T06:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T06:21:09","slug":"abandoned-lewis-hamilton-talks-resurface-as-revolutionary-ferrari-rumours-swirl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/394746\/","title":{"rendered":"Abandoned Lewis Hamilton talks resurface as &#8216;revolutionary&#8217; Ferrari rumours swirl"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Monday\u2019s fast-paced F1 news includes Peter Sauber claiming that he almost signed Lewis Hamilton for 2007 as new rumours about Ferrari\u2019s \u2018revolutionary\u2019 F1 2026 engine emerge.<\/p>\n<p>As Mercedes announces the launch date of the new W17 car, here\u2019s today\u2019s roundup\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Sauber \u2018almost\u2019 signed Lewis Hamilton for 2007 F1 season<\/p>\n<p>Lewis Hamilton \u201calmost\u201d signed with Sauber for the 2007 F1 season before a loan deal from McLaren fell through.<\/p>\n<p>That is the claim of former team boss Peter Sauber, who says talks collapsed after McLaren rejected his proposal of a two-year loan deal.<\/p>\n<p>Hamilton went on to make his F1 debut with McLaren in 2007, narrowly missing out on becoming the sport\u2019s first-ever rookie world champion.<\/p>\n<p>Read more:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/news\/lewis-hamilton-negotiations-mclaren-sauber\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Revealed: The failed Lewis Hamilton 2007 negotiations \u2018hardly anyone knows\u2019 about<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Rumour: Ferrari commits to \u2018revolutionary\u2019 F1 2026 engine design \u2018innovation\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Ferrari is to reportedly press ahead with plans to include steel alloy cylinder heads in its \u2018revolutionary\u2019 F1 2026 engine design.<\/p>\n<p>It emerged in October that Ferrari had \u2018abandoned\u2019 work on steel cylinder heads for 2026 due to reliability concerns.<\/p>\n<p>However, a reported breakthrough over recent months has seen the team commit to the highly innovative\u2019 design.<\/p>\n<p>Read more:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/planetf1.com\/news\/ferrari-f1-2026-engine-project-678-update\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ferrari makes final decision over \u2018revolutionary\u2019 Project 678 engine \u2013 report<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Mercedes announces W17 launch date<\/p>\n<p>Mercedes has announced that the W17 car for the F1 2026 season will be launched on January 22.<\/p>\n<p>Much is expected ahead of Mercedes ahead of this year\u2019s regulation changes, which will see F1 embrace 50 per cent electrification, fully sustainable fuels and active aerodynamics.<\/p>\n<p>Mercedes finished second in the 2025 constructors\u2019 standings.<\/p>\n<p>Read more:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/news\/mercedes-confirm-w17-launch-date\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mercedes confirm W17 launch date ahead of F1 2026 season<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Cadillac confirms Zhou Guanyu as F1 2026 reserve<\/p>\n<p>The Cadillac F1 team has announced that Zhou Guanyu will act as the team\u2019s reserve driver in F1 2026.<\/p>\n<p>It comes just days after Zhou announced his departure from Ferrari.<\/p>\n<p>Zhou spent three seasons at Sauber between 2022 and 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Read more:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/news\/zhou-guanyu-confirmed-as-cadillac-reserve-driver-ahead-of-debut-season\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Zhou Guanyu confirmed as Cadillac reserve driver ahead of debut season<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sebastian Vettel opens up about F1 career decline<\/p>\n<p>Sebastian Vettel has opened up about his decline over his final years in F1.<\/p>\n<p>Vettel added just one more victory to his tally after missing out on the 2018 title to then-Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton.<\/p>\n<p>The German retired from F1 at the end of the 2022 season after two years with Aston Martin.<\/p>\n<p>Read more:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/news\/sebastian-vettel-f1-decline-ferrari-break-year\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u2018Daddy, don\u2019t go\u2019 \u2013 Sebastian Vettel opens up on F1 career decline<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Monday\u2019s fast-paced F1 news includes Peter Sauber claiming that he almost signed Lewis Hamilton for 2007 as new&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,3550,817,826,813,816,818,823,945,44,851,85,95269],"class_list":["post-394746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cadillac","tag-f1","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-home-page","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-mercedes","tag-news","tag-sebastian-vettel","tag-sports","tag-zhou-guanyu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}