{"id":368651,"date":"2025-12-25T20:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T20:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/368651\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T20:31:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T20:31:08","slug":"sauber-opens-up-on-one-of-f1s-biggest-what-ifs-with-hamilton-admission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/368651\/","title":{"rendered":"Sauber opens up on one of F1\u2019s biggest \u2018what-ifs\u2019 with Hamilton admission"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peter Sauber has revealed what could go down as one of Formula 1<\/a>\u2019s biggest \u201cwhat ifs\u201d after he disclosed that his team came close to signing Lewis Hamilton<\/a> ahead of the 2007 season.\u201cHardly anyone knows that around 20 years ago, Lewis Hamilton almost drove for us.\u201d- Peter SauberThe retired Swiss motorsport chief, who finally drew the curtain on his involvement in F1<\/a> at the end of the 2025 season, took to the media to reflect on some of his experiences and encounters that began in 1993.<\/p>\n

Among the many memories recounted by the 82-year-old was his team coming close to signing Hamilton. Reflecting on the incidents that transpired, Sauber, in an interview with Blick, revealed:<\/p>\n

\u201cHardly anyone knows that around 20 years ago, Lewis Hamilton almost drove for us. The Briton belonged to McLaren<\/a>, and they wanted to send him to Hinwil for his Formula 1 apprenticeship. So the McLaren delegation met with Lewis and his father, as well as our in-house lawyer Monisha Kaltenborn and myself, at Kloten Airport.\u201d\"peter-sauber-abu-dhabi-jpg\"\/<\/p>\n

Peter Sauber with his wife, Christiane Sauber – Photo: Race Pictures<\/p>\n

Explaining why a deal for Hamilton failed to materialise, he continued:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe deal fell through because McLaren only wanted to loan him for one year \u2013 but we insisted on two!\u201d<\/p>\n

The failed move for Hamilton, which resulted in him staying at McLaren, set the stage for one of the most decorated drivers’ careers F1 has ever witnessed.<\/p>\n

The British driver secured multiple race victories in his debut season before going on to clinch a drivers\u2019 championship the following year. Hamilton would go on to add another six titles to his collection after switching to Mercedes in 2013.<\/p>\n

Vasseur admits key Ferrari failure behind Hamilton\u2019s struggleScuderia Ferrari<\/a> team principal Fred Vasseur pointed to a major team failure behind Lewis Hamilton\u2019s struggles <\/a>at the Ferrari outfit.<\/p>\n

The French motorsport chief stressed how the team underestimated the British driver\u2019s adaptation but assured that a much-improved showing is expected in 2026.<\/p>\n

Catch up with GPBlog\u2019s Latest Paddock Update<\/p>\n

With the post-2025 season finale action and reaction continuing, our paddock update is the place to be.<\/p>\n

Follow and subscribe to our channels on YouTube and Spotify to stay up to date with all the happenings as they unfold, following the final Grand Prix of the campaign.<\/p>\n

Check out the latest episode of our paddock update here \ud83d\udc47<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Peter Sauber has revealed what could go down as one of Formula 1\u2019s biggest \u201cwhat ifs\u201d after he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,28673,930,576,577,932,590,130550,142744,82],"class_list":["post-368651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-f1-news","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-mclaren","tag-mercedes-amg-f1-team","tag-sauber-f1-team","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}