Mercedes race team co-ordinator Stephen Lord has revealed that he expected Lewis Hamilton to return to McLaren after his F1 stint with the Silver Arrows.

And he claimed that a move to Ferrari has been in Hamilton‘s mind “all along”, revealing the subject cropped up in conversation with the seven-time World Champion some years ago.

Lewis Hamilton Ferrari switch proves McLaren return prediction ‘completely wrong’

Hamilton announced earlier this year that he will join Ferrari on a multi-year contract from the F1 2025 season, ending his long and successful partnership with Mercedes.

The British driver claimed six of his joint-record seven World Championships with Mercedes, as well as becoming the first man to surpass 100 grand prix wins and pole positions.

The only previous team switch of Hamilton’s career came at the start of 2013, when he sensationally swapped McLaren for Mercedes in one of the most surprising moves in F1 history.

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Hamilton claimed his maiden F1 title with McLaren in 2008, but opted to replace Michael Schumacher at Mercedes – who had won just a single race since taking over the title-winning Brawn GP outfit in late 2009 – after years of underachievement with the Woking-based team.

Appearing on F1’s Beyond The Grid podcast, Lord revealed that he suspected Hamilton would return to McLaren once his time at Mercedes was over.

Asked if he was surprised by Hamilton’s move to Ferrari, he said: “Not at all. Because I think that’s been his plan all along.

“A few years ago, it came up in conversation. I actually always thought he might be tempted back to McLaren, but I was completely wrong.

“We had a conversation years ago and he always said that he felt most drivers had a desire to, at least at some point in their career, drive the Ferrari.

“So I wasn’t surprised at all.

“They’re the oldest, most recognisable team in the pit lane, the history and the esteem that that marque is held in, I think it’s inevitable that people would want to go there.”

Appearing on the Performance People podcast earlier this year, Hamilton revealed he was told his “career’s over” after electing to leave McLaren for Mercedes before it proved to be the “best decision ever made.”

Invited to pinpoint the defining moment of his career, he said: “It will probably have been when I decided to join Mercedes.

“I was in Thailand at the time, in between races after Singapore, and that’s when I made the decision.

“And I was like: ‘I want to take the leap of faith and I’m going to go with it, regardless of what people say.’

“Pretty much everyone told me to stay, but I went with my gut and my intuition and it was the best thing for me.

“I was with a championship-winning team. I was with McLaren, which had such a great history.

“Obviously Mercedes used to own half of McLaren, and so it was partly their team, but then they broke away and bought their own team and as they were trying to ramp up, they weren’t having a lot of success.

“I think they were the fifth or sixth-best team at the time, so they were often finishing out of the top 10, struggling to get into the top 10.

“As a World Champion, people were like: ‘This is the worst decision you can make, this not a great team and your career is over.’

“All the pundits, all the media outlets, all the fans, everyone was like: ‘Career’s over.’

“And then it went well and everyone’s like: ‘Oh, it’s the best decision ever made.’”

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