P1racenews AI automatic summary:
It has been claimed that Lewis Hamilton could have made his F1 debut with another team.
Peter Sauber revealed that Lewis Hamilton was close to making his F1 debut with the Sauber team nearly 20 years ago, before ultimately joining McLaren.
Negotiations between Sauber and Hamilton, who was part of McLaren’s young driver program, fell through due to McLaren’s insistence on a short-term deal.
Had the talks been successful, Hamilton could have driven for Sauber as early as 2005 or 2006.
However, McLaren’s reluctance to agree to a longer contract led Hamilton to join McLaren in 2007, where he debuted in F1 and went on to achieve tremendous success, eventually moving to Mercedes and then Ferrari in 2025.
During his tenure at Ferrari, Hamilton struggled to adapt and finished sixth in the 2025 drivers’ world championship behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
