F1 | Peter Sauber's Behind-the-Scenes: One Step Away from Hamilton's Signing in 2007

Lewis Hamilton could have started his Formula 1 career with Sauber. This curious transfer background was revealed by the Swiss team's founder, Peter Sauber himself.

McLaren, with whom the Englishman made his Formula 1 debut in 2007, wanted to send the then-young driver to gain experience at a team away from the pressure before making the big leap to a top team. But, as Sauber himself explained, the differences of opinion between the two teams caused the deal to fall through.

And so Hamilton made his Formula 1 debut with McLaren, with whom he won the first of his seven world championships a year after his debut. At the end of 2012, he left the Woking team for a stint at Mercedes, where, with victories and titles, he rewrote Formula 1 history.

After a long spell with the star, 2025 marked the “marriage of the century” with Ferrari, even though Hamilton’s first season in red was very complicated and ended without victories or podiums.

“Hardly anyone knows that about 20 years ago Lewis Hamilton was about to race for us,” Sauber said in a recent interview with Blick. “The Briton belonged to McLaren, who wanted to send him to Hinwil for an apprenticeship in Formula 1. So the McLaren delegation met with Lewis and his father, together with our lawyer Monisha Kaltenborn and me, at Kloten airport.”

Sauber, continuing with the story, then added: “The deal fell through because McLaren only wanted to loan him for one year, while we insisted on two!”