Lewis Hamilton has confessed that, although it would be very difficult to imagine himself performing for another team apart from Mercedes for the remainder of his career, he won't rule out a move to Ferrari, saying he would "never say never" to the switch.
At the Mexican Grand Prix, Hamilton secured enough points to win his fifth world championship which put him alongside Juan Manuel Fangio and two behind Michael Schumacher on seven.
The Brit is establishing himself as one of the greatest drivers in history, but is yet to feature for Formula 1's most famous and successful outfit, Ferrari.
Speculation mounted following Hamilton's latest championship win that he could be tempted by a move to the Scuderia in the future, and his latest comments show he does not want to completely dismiss the idea.
“At the moment, it’s very very difficult to imagine, envisage myself anywhere else,” said Hamilton.
“This is my family, this is where I grew up but I said the same thing when I was at McLaren.
“I think one of the reasons I wanted to move was to go somewhere else and see if you could do something special somewhere else.
“I knew I could but I needed to prove it to everyone else. Right now, I don’t feel like I need to go and be in another team to win a title in another team but you can never say never.”
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has provided his opinion on the speculation, and thinks that as long as the team's car remains the best, then Hamilton will stay.
“As long as we provide a car that is competitive to win championships and he continues to drive like he does, this can be a relationship that goes forever,” Wolff told Sky F1.