By Amanda Schwarz and Sadie York
“Everybody is a Ferrari fan. Even if they’re not, they are a Ferrari fan. Even if you go to the Mercedes guys, even if they say that ‘Oh yeah Mercedes is the greatest brand in the world,’ they are a Ferrari fan.”
⸺ Sebastian Vettel
On February 1st, 7x World Champion Lewis Hamilton announced that he’ll be driving for Scuderia Ferrari in the 2025 Formula 1 season. After Lewis’s contract with Mercedes ended and hadn’t been renewed, the idea of a potential team switchover surfaced to the public. Although speculated for a while, all sources of information on the subject were deemed unreliable, and the idea of Hamilton terminating his time with the silver arrows of Mercedes-AMG Petronas appeared unlikely. Following several occasions in which the British driver publicized his desire to continue the fight for his 8th World Title with Mercedes, everyone assumed all the allegations of a switch were false. Many interviews conducted regarding the rumors were also seemingly shut down by Lewis. So, when the announcement was aired, many were left shocked.
Any other driver swap on the Formula 1 grid wouldn’t have caused as much drama. However, with this news revolving around a driver who created one of the most famous motor sport legacies in history, the fans went ballistic. Lewis Hamilton had joined Mercedes in 2013, and with his time there has won 6 World Championships, 82 races, and 78 pole positions, creating an astounding status for himself as well as the team. So much so that over the years his name has become synonymous with Mercedes.
In the recent seasons of Formula 1, Mercedes hasn’t been performing as well as they’ve hoped. After complete superiority for around 7 straight years, it’s a huge letdown when your team’s star driver hasn’t won a race in 2 seasons. The new presiding force of Formula 1, Redbull Racing, has been dominating the track since a controversial end to the 2021 season. Hamilton has been competing in Formula 1 for over a decade, and considering the grid is only getting younger, it’s understandable that he’s had to weigh his options. His ultimatum being the choice to stay with a team which may not satisfy his needs, or take a leap of faith and hope for a better outcome with an apparently better-performing team–not to mention THE Scuderia Ferrari.
While it’s heartbreaking that Lewis and Mercedes are parting ways (truly an end to an era), this new direction of his career will be extremely exciting to watch, especially since it’s been 11 years since Hamilton raced for a team other than Mercedes. He’ll be joining Ferrari as a teammate to Charles Leclerc, a young talent who’s performance at Ferrari (even during disastrous times) has proved him to be a huge contender for a championship win. Together, this duo will pair to create a highly competitive team against the other drivers.
Lewis Hamilton’s time with Mercedes will certainly never be forgotten, and it may be missed, but there’s no doubt that he’ll bring his talent to join forces with Ferrari and hopefully fight for an 8th World Championship. This new chapter set to begin in 2025 is one which is going to be highly anticipated, and whatever may come with the season will undoubtedly be a surprise.
🏎💨
In the aftermath of Lewis Hamilton’s surprising team change set to be enacted in 2025, my first thought was not in fact the end of his golden years at Mercedes. It was: how could Ferrari do that to Carlos Sainz? I [AS] shouldn’t have been too offended, since nice separations aren’t really the Scuderia’s motif, but I am, and here’s what I think about the end of Carlos’ time with Ferrari.
In my opinion, Hamilton’s going to Ferrari shouldn’t even have been an option, because in my ideal world Ferrari would have already renewed Carlos’ contract. They renewed Charles’ with no complaints when Charles Leclerc and Carlos were all of six points apart from each other in the 2023 season. In 2021, Carlos was 5.5 ahead. Charles is consistently a better driver and spectacular in qualifying (and driving with a broken car), but I don’t think he’s astronomically better. Skill wise they both have things to offer and it seems to me like Ferrari favors Charles much more than is appropriate, especially when talking about contracts. I don’t understand why he gets an automatic contract when Carlos has been getting half promises. Additionally, Carlos was the only non-Red Bull driver to win a race the entirety of 2023. What did he win it with? Good strategy, that he thought up driving at ridiculous speed while Ferrari’s “real strategists” were safely tucked away at some stationary desk. Since Ferrari historically lacks decent strategists (Charles still hears “Box, box. No, stay out” in his nightmares), doesn’t it seem like a driver that’s also a decent strategist would be perfect for Ferrari’s team? It also doesn’t hurt that Carlos and Charles, affectionately nicknamed C2, are great friends. It makes for good media (not that Ferrari needs it I suppose), and I doubt Ferrari will be able to convince Hamilton to do half of the silly things Carlos and Charles have done. I am excited to see the new two work together, but I really wish I could see it happen without Carlos being treated unkindly and how I see it somewhat unfairly.
However, with all that said, I can see things from Ferrari’s perspective. If I were running a team focused on winning, I’d take Hamilton too when given the chance. Anyone would, he’s one of the best in the sport. So as much as I’m upset Ferrari hadn’t re-signed Carlos, I’m not against them taking Hamilton, but I am against how they chose to release the information. By way of Carlos’ reaction to the announcement, I’m under the impression Ferrari has not been keeping Carlos up to date the way they should have been. I get that managing a team is hard and all but do you know what isn’t that hard? Being nice. When Carlos left McLaren, they made a whole video for Ferrari in Italian to show Carlos and tell Ferrari how important he was even though Carlos left them (see here, it’s very sweet). Ferrari’s abandoning Carlos and they didn’t even have the decency to let him know. Despite what they seem to think, Carlos has done a lot for them. He’s certainly not one of the most exceptional drivers they’ve had, and it’s not like he’s better than Hamilton, but that doesn’t mean he deserves absolutely nothing in return for what he has done. The worst part, it’s not even unusual from the ever so beloved prancing horse. Sebastian Vettel probably isn’t too surprised, they did the same to him, and he is a four time world champion. It’s quite common to leave Ferrari on unpleasant terms, no matter how good you may be (this article explains some of Ferrari’s past “breakups”). I could think up reasons for this, perhaps it is because Ferrari knows they are nearly untouchable (it would take a fracture of the universe to make Ferrari lose its support). But really, no matter what the reason, it is not justifiable considering the outcome.
Overall, Ferrari handled this cruelly per usual. I sincerely hope Carlos ends up somewhere he is treated with the kind of respect he has never deserved to drive without and that whoever is making these decisions at Ferrari accidentally gets run over by a race car so better management can take over.