Signing Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes, Fred Vasseur says it “wasn’t difficult” as the Briton had always thought of racing for Ferrari.

Hamilton took the F1 world by surprise back in February when it was announced he would be leaving Mercedes at the end of the season to join Ferrari as Charles Leclerc’s new team-mate.

It was a shock to many given Hamilton had put pen to paper on a new two-year deal, a one-plus-one contract, with Mercedes just six months prior and had spoken about ending his career in the sport with Mercedes.

Instead red is likely to be the 39-year-old’s last colour as Hamilton signed a multi-year deal with Ferrari.

It’s a deal that Vasseur says was easy to get across the line.

“It wasn’t difficult actually,” the Ferrari team boss told Gazzetta dello Sport, “Ferrari has always been in his thoughts in some ways and now the stars have aligned.

“But he comes to win, not on vacation. And I’m convinced that we have everything to try.”

According to a report in the Guardian at the time of Hamilton’s announcement, the deal was signed off very quickly.

The British newspaper claims that the ‘negotiations were exceptionally, unusually swift, with one lawyer citing the contract as the quickest they had dealt with in F1.

‘Ferrari were apparently “excited” from the moment the two sides began talks and unafraid to make a commitment.’

Hamilton had previously spoken of his childhood dream of racing for Ferrari, revealing that was one of the reasons when Vasseur, who he knows from his days in the junior formulae, stepped up into the role of team principal, he too thought the stars had aligned.

“Of course, I think for every driver growing up, watching the history, watching Michael Schumacher in his prime, I think probably all of us sit in our garage and see the screen pop up, and you see the driver in the red cockpit and you wonder what it would be like to be surrounded by the red,” he said.

“You go to the Italian Grand Prix and you see the sea of red Ferrari fans and you can only stand in awe of that. It’s a team that’s not had huge success recently, since 2007, and I saw it as a huge challenge.

“Without a doubt, even as a kid, I used to play [on games] as Michael in that car, so it definitely is a dream and I’m really, really excited about it.”

“I’ve got a great relationship with Fred,” he added. “Obviously I raced with him in Formula 3, and we had amazing success in Formula 3 and also in GP2, and that’s really where the foundation of our relationship started. We just always remained in touch.

“I thought that he was going to be an amazing team manager at some stage and progress to Formula 1, but at the time he wasn’t interested in that.

“It was really cool to see him step into the Alfa [Romeo] team and then when he got the job at Ferrari I was just so happy for him, and I think just the stars aligned.

“I think it really wouldn’t have happened without him, so I’m really grateful and really excited about the work that he’s doing there.”