Lewis Hamilton's reason for wanting to end his Mercedes contract early to join Ferrari ahead of the 2025 season is supposedly down to Loic Serra's imminent departure.
Mercedes are just weeks away from unveiling their W15 car ahead of the new season starting next month.
Toto Wolff will be hoping the Silver Arrows can close the gap to Red Bull with Hamilton desperate to get back to winning ways.
However, the team have been rocked by reports that Hamilton is set to quit the team at the end of the year.
Lewis Hamilton has been linked with a move to Ferrari
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The 39-year-old has been linked with a switch to Ferrari throughout his time in F1, but has repeatedly spoken of his desire to end his career with Mercedes.
Just last year Hamilton dismissed rumours linking him with a move to Ferrari and seemingly put to bed any possible departure from Mercedes by penning a two-year contract running to the end of the 2025 season.
However, reports now claim that deal included a release clause that is set to be activiated at the end of the 2024 campaign to allow him to join Ferrari.
According to RacingNews365, Hamilton's reason for quitting Mercedes is partly due to the team failing to keep hold of Serra.
The French engineer agreed a deal to join Ferrari from the Silver Arrows for the 2025 season after a 'conflict with the Mercedes technical staff'.
Serra is said to have disagreed with the concept the team were heading in for the 2022 and 2023 seasons, seemingly putting him on the same wavelength as Hamilton.
The seven-time world champion spoke last year about his frustration for the direction the team chose to go down with the design of the W14.
"Last year I told them what problems there are with the car," Hamilton said a year ago.
Lewis Hamilton looks set to leave Mercedes at the end of the year
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"I've driven so many cars, so I know what a car needs and what a car doesn't need.
"I think it's really It's about responsibility, it's about taking accountability and saying 'yeah, you know what, we haven't listened to you, it's not where it needs to be and we need to get to work'.”
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Kimi Raikkonen is Ferrari's last world champion
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Mercedes ended up listening to Hamilton's complaints midway through the season as they began to drastically change the design.
But it appears as though Hamilton hasn't been enamoured by what he's heard from Mercedes heading into the new year and will look to end his career with one final challenge.
Ferrari haven't had a world champion since Kimi Raikkonen's title back in 2007 with Fernando Alonso coming close to ending that drought in 2010 and 2012.
