Allure of Ferrari made this too big to turn down for Hamilton

Everyone dreams of driving for the Scuderia but it is no sentimental move, seven-time world champion wants better chance of an eighth title

Ferrari have always been the biggest, most iconic team in Formula One. No question. Growing up in and around the sport I was certainly always in awe of them. Not that my father ever drove for Ferrari. Not in Formula One anyway. He drove a 250 GTO at Le Mans one year with Stirling Moss, and came second in a prototype 330P another year (sadly the relationship never extended to actually owning a Ferrari – we had a Ford Cortina and a Ford Zephyr when I was growing up!) But there was always something special about that scarlet. The prancing horse. There is a magic and a mystique to the Scuderia.
All of which is a long-winded way of saying I can quite understand why Lewis Hamilton is throwing in his lot with the Italian marque for the final chapter (one presumes) of his career. Wearing those overalls is the dream of any young driver growing up, and Lewis has always been a fan.
What a shock, though. The timing of it, just as the season is about to get underway, really caught everyone by surprise.
I was scheduled to be at Sky HQ last night to commentate on the AT&T golf at Pebble Beach of all things. But when this news broke in Italy, it was chaos. The whole Sky F1 team was drafted in early. You know it’s a big story when your WhatsApp groups all start pinging at once. I checked it out with a few Italian friends and the message came back: “It’s just people chatting in the pub. It’s rubbish.” Within an hour they were back saying it was all true. Who would have thought the biggest story from transfer deadline day would involve a Formula One driver moving teams?
Honestly, I think it’s great news for Formula One. There’s a romance to Hamilton – this supernova who has burned so brightly for so long – finishing his career with Ferrari. I think it gives the sport a huge shot in the arm, particularly in the States. If you were looking for a good news story to take the interest away from Andretti’s rather brutal rejection on Wednesday, this does the job rather well.
It is a leap of faith on Lewis’s part, but I’m sure it is not simply an emotional decision. Lewis is desperate for that eighth title which was so cruelly ripped away from him in Abu Dhabi 2021. If he felt that Mercedes were in a better position to give that to him, if he thought they were on the verge of overhauling Red Bull, there is no doubt he would stay. He has taken a calculated gamble that Ferrari are the better bet.
It is absolutely fascinating. Remember, Lewis will have been privy to data about Ferrari’s development in Mercedes driver briefings. He will have read the runes. Of course, you can overestimate how much a driver takes in or understands in an engineering sense, but Lewis has been around a long time. He made a great call when jumping ship from McLaren. Who is to say he has not made another great call now? He obviously knows Fred Vasseur well from their time together at ART. He likes what he sees. Maybe with Lewis in the car Ferrari would have been more competitive than they were last year?
There is no doubt it is a big blow for Mercedes. Team principal Toto Wolff and technical director James Allison have both signed new deals in recent weeks and I’m sure they tried their best to convince him they were on top of things; that they could mount a championship challenge.
But if he felt it was going to be more of the same, then why stay? Why not try something new? It doesn’t get any bigger.
I know I would have loved to race for Ferrari. I did go to see Jean Todt once, I think it was before I joined Arrows, about driving alongside Michael Schumacher. I remember he said: “Yes, yes, but you have to be OK with team orders.” That was the end of that.
Weirdly, Jean later said he couldn’t remember the conversation. Perhaps I dreamt sitting outside his house in Italy!
Anyway, I’m excited. It certainly adds a new dimension to Formula One and to the season that we have coming up. Will Mercedes continue to be completely open with Lewis as 2024 wears on? It’s not like he’s an engineer you can put on gardening leave. He will be taking whatever he knows straight to Maranello! If I know racing drivers, George Russell will not be shy of pointing that out. He is now the future for Mercedes.
But nor are Mercedes daft. Their partnership with Hamilton has been one of the most successful in the history of the sport and they will want it to finish on a high rather than let it fizzle out. If Lewis starts well they will back him to the hilt I’m sure. If he doesn’t, things could get interesting.
Has Lewis made the right call? Will he live to regret it? Who knows. It is going to be fascinating to see how it all pans out.