Niki Lauda and Ross Brawn were among the driving forces of bringing Hamilton across from McLaren in 2013 in a move ✃which raised eyebrows because Mercedes were no💛t considered frontrunners.

Six more F1 championships later, Hamilton is now 38 and in the fin🐟al year of his contract with Mercedes unable to provide a car which can compete for glory for two seasons in a row.

• ‘Ferrari’s biggest problem is the 💞drivers’ - Schumacher scolds Leclerc and Sainz

“As a racing driver I don’t see why༺ he would not have tꦆhe motivation, especially for that eighth title,” ex-F1 driver Herbert told . 

“He is still good en🌟ough. I know what it means for him. 

“George Russell is doing a cracking job but Lewis has still got what it takes to wꦆin r🅠aces. 

“🐼He is not comfortable with the car, but that happens. Every single driver I know has moments when they feel uncomfortab🦩le with their car and complain. 

“It is unfair to criticise🎃 Lewis for that. The motivation for the eighth is still there. 

“But it has to have the right ingredients - like he did when he went from McLaren to⭕ Mercedes when a number of people, including myself, thought 💞he was mad to do it.

“Mercedes at that point were nowhere. What Niki Lauda and Ross Brawn were🐻 able to pre💃sent to him excited him. That’s why he went. 

“Ferrari have got to do a similarly big sel🧔lingꦏ job.

“Lewis hasn’t signed his extension and that enables him, if he is still motivated, to🥃 look elsewhere. 

“And why wouldn’t he? Ferrari has to be the option. He is not going to go to Red Bull, that isn’t going to happen. He is n𝄹ot going to go to Aston Martin either. 

“I know Ferrari have not quite been able to achieve what we all expect Ferrari to ac💎hieve, but they certainly have the po🐼tential to be able to do it. That’s for sure. 

“𓂃They have got closer over the past couple of years but iཧt hasn’t quite worked out.

“Maybe he wants to hold on to see which direction Mercedes has gone and what they do, which is n𓄧ot very positive, and then maybe put the feelers out for somewhere else.

“The red car makes the most sense. If it happened, then the one who would suffer would b✅e Carlos Sainz as Charles Leclerc is already concreted in.

“Hamilton and Sainz at Ferrari would be a wonderful pairing, to be honest. The young and the experienced, fighting it out in a Ferrari th🐓at hopefully, with the whole ability that Lewis has, to draw in the right people to be able to produce a car and take it to Red Bull as it is at the moment.”

Mercedes team princ🅺ipal Toto Wolff and Hamilton himself have both suggested that a contract renewal is on the cards and could be signed within weeks.

However, the longer it goes unconfirmed and the longer that Mercedes’ ಞW14 lags behind the Red Bulls, the more tempted Hamilton might become to try something new.