After an extraordinary time at Mercedes, winning six world championships, Lewis Hamilton will leave the team at the end of this season. Due to recent unsuccessful seasons with Mercedes the star decided to end the time at Mercedes. Even though Ferrari has not been much more successful either, Lewis Hamilton wants to go to Ferrari, arguably the team with the most prestige.
Hamilton’s career at Mercedes
After Hamilton chose to go to Mercedes in 2013 after being at McLaren, he really became the best F1 driver the sport has ever seen. After 12 seasons and 83 races at Mercedes, he will leave the team for Ferrari. Hamilton raced with Mercedes from 2013 on and is going to leave in 2025. In that time he won 6 world championships. He joined Mercedes with just one world championship. That drastically changed after he joined Mercedes. He won every world championship from 2014 to 2020 except in 2016 where Nico Rosberg was able to beat his impressive run.
For Mercedes it also was one of the best signings. They only had one major title when they signed Lewis Hamilton but due to his successful career this changed very quickly.
Now Lewis Hamilton wants to win his record breaking eighth world title. But since it was not possible in the past, with the cars made from Mercedes, Hamilton wants to change the team. And which team and especially what car could be better for Hamilton than the prestigious team and cars of Ferrari.
The problem with Mercedes
The streak of Lewis Hamilton ended in 2021 and changed the F1-driver. After a correct decision by the race control in the final 2021 in Abu Dhabi Hamilton lost in the final lap to Verstappen. This changed a lot. Since then Max Verstappen took the lead and now seems to be impossible to beat. At the final in 2021, in the final lap, Lewis Hamilton missed to break the record from Michael Schumacher. He won seven world championships in his career as well and Lewis Hamilton was very close to beat it.
After that Mercedes never built a car that was completable with the rest, especially Red Bull. Hamilton realized that the moment he stepped into the W13 from Mercedes. And with Mercedes not being able to keep up with Red Bull, it is not to hard for Max Verstappen to dominate the F1 at the moment. That’s why Hamilton wants to move to Ferrari now.
Even Hamilton lost hope in the cars from Mercedes. He said is mood was “not great” and he does not believe that anyone can keep up with Red Bull next season.
“You can pretty much guess where they’re going to be next year.
Lewis Hamilton
Now with the last season for Mercedes and Hamilton it will be interesting to see how it will turn out. Mercedes new W15 might be better than their last cars. But Hamilton did not sit in it just yet. We will have to wait until he drove the car in real live. Maybe he will be able to win his eighth title at Mercedes and achieve what seems to be impossible for many.
What makes Ferrari so attractive for Hamilton?
The real question is, how much better is Ferrari? The team of the prestigious Italian car maker cannot shine with a lot of success in recent years. But even though Ferrari does not have success right now, it does not mean that Hamilton won’t. When he joined Mercedes in 2013, the team had only one title and it was in a low. Now it could be the same with Ferrari many fans hope.
Ferrari plans just as Mercedes to stack up their production and improve over the next years. Hamilton also has connections with some of the members of Ferrari. Hamilton raced for the now-Ferrari Boss Fred Vasseur. They are still in contact and this is a huge advantage for Hamilton to have people around that he knows even though he might loose races. It is also a dream of many to drive for Ferrari one day. The history and prestige the car maker has is insane but deserved.
“Everyone is a Ferrari fan. Even if they say they’re not, they are Ferrari fans”
Sebastian Vettel
“probably it’s in every driver’s head to drive at Ferrari one day.”
Toto Wolff, Mercedes’ team principle
But Hamilton is not at Ferrari to spend time with his Friends. He wants to win his eighth world championship and for that there needs to be a lot of improvement. Since Hamilton is 39 years old and will be 40 when he joins the Ferrari team, there needs to be immediate success. Even though Ferrari was good last season since they were the only ones to win a race besides Red Bull they only finished third, just behind Mercedes in the final results. Will that change next year?
This decision is one of the most impactful and probably also unexpected moves in sports for a long time. We will see Hamilton in a Ferrari soon and even though it might be hard to get used to for some, it is a very reasonable move and for sure a dream of Hamilton. Even though he said he won’t leave Mercedes in his career. It will be exciting to see if Hamilton can win his eighth championship in a Ferrari.
Leave a Reply