With a view to his eighth record title, Lewis Hamilton will ditch his old Mercedes team for a Ferrari seat from 2025. Apart from glory and romance, there is much more behind his motivation than just the hope for a fairytale end to his career, writes Braam Peens… 
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A poster that adorns the walls of a million boys’ bedrooms and an equal number of older racing fans’ garages around the world shows a rear view of Gilles Villeneuve at an impossible angle above a trackside curb, flanked by the words of The commander reads: What’s behind you doesn’t matter.
It’s gripping stuff that crystallizes the heroism, enchantment and sheer iconography of steed-wringing crafted by motorsport’s most revered team in its prime. Except that driving for Ferrari, because of its legacy, inevitably invites conversations – and comparisons – with its glorious gallery of minds.
For Lewis Hamilton, whose 2025 arrival at the Scuderia was announced on February 1, that attraction became irresistible over time and in the wake of several previous overtures.
This quirky move aims to restore the last missing entries on the CVs of two of F1’s greatest drivers: one, that of Hamilton’s boyhood hero, Ayrton Senna, who dreamed of it but never drove in red, was retired on May 1 Denied by fate in 1994. And from Michael Schumacher – whose seven titles Hamilton has equaled, but not yet exceeded; after his long-standing Mercedes team was derailed by a combination of a misunderstanding over the new 2022 ground effect aerodynamics; coupled with the consequences of engine freezes and the budget cap, effectively banning correction of development missteps during the season.
However, there is more to it than the desire for a faster company car.
The frustrations over his consistently recalcitrant cars from 2022, combined with the zero prospect of redemption until F1’s new ruleset comes into play in 2026, are the most obvious indications that Hamilton is turning his back on a team that has since taken him to 82 victories and six crowns. 2014.
What is less known is that the seeds of its discontent were sown as early as 2020, when the Daimler Group embarked on a continental venture to cut costs and jobs in the wake of declining profits. This was at the hands of new CEO Ola Källenius, who the year before succeeded one of Mercedes’ main proponents of the Silver Arrows’ full-time and official return to F1 ten years earlier, Dieter Zetsche.
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Hamilton was out of contract at the end of 2020; the latter of which was only extended after suspiciously lengthy negotiations that lasted until 2021. The brevity and inconsistency of the subsequent extensions – first by one year for 2021, then by another two years that would run until the end of 2023, followed by another two until 2026 – irritated him. After clinching Mercedes’ fifth consecutive world championship in 2020, F1’s most successful driver sought a four-year contract worth a reported $200 million. Wary of such incongruous optics amid a wave of layoffs and other corporate austerity measures, the less enamored F1 Källenius declined. However you personally define involvement, the CEO’s version was clearly at odds with Hamilton’s interpretation, leaving Lewis questioning the brand’s gratitude for his monumental contributions to the team.
And, as it turned out, his loyalty to them.
When the stillborn 2023 car turned a wheel for the first time during the pre-season test in Bahrain; he felt little progress and was deaf to his suggestions; Having resigned himself to another year of helplessly witnessing Max Verstappen romp to his third straight title, Hamilton may have been plotting his exit strategy. That opportunity arose when the British driver signed with Mercedes for another two years in August. Since his last contract was configured as one year plus one, he could leave the team without further obligations after the 2024 season.
Considering he started the year with the worst ever start of his F1 career, his decision to leave was reinforced almost immediately. Yet the destructive impact of Hamilton’s departure from Mercedes cannot be underestimated. From the factory floor to the designers’ offices, Ferrari’s report that Mercedes’ star driver had found greener pastures before even unveiling the 2024 car would have served as a Julius Caesar-level betrayal.
It means an irreparable loss of confidence that can no longer be supported by sentiment. Lewis Hamilton’s last victory was almost three years ago, but still motivated he clearly felt that Mercedes was no longer the team following a trajectory that would allow him to reach the next one. From the brand image to the current and future fans and sponsors, his loss symbolizes and greatly accelerates the decline of a box-office dynasty once considered invincible.
In what has been a fallow period post-2021, it’s a huge move akin to Senna dropping McLaren for Williams in 1994; good for Hamilton, for Ferrari and especially for the competitive story of F1 itself. This perhaps only matches his own foresight when he switched from McLaren to Mercedes in 2013, anticipating the Silver Arrows that would dominate the V6 turbo-hybrid era from 2014 onwards.
Today, the atrophy of the team that made Lewis Hamilton a superstar has emboldened him to abandon them. Even if Lewis never manages to take the highest podium step for Ferrari, it creates a powerhouse in marketing terms by combining the sport’s two most vaunted assets. It’s also a victory for team boss Fred Vasseur (who oversaw Hamilton’s F3 and GP2 titles), who is buckling under the pressure to deliver the team’s next F1 crown: the last was in 2007.
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As the sporting benchmarks go, it’s also a win for both Hamilton and the incumbent Charles Leclerc: the latter gets to meet his match as F1’s fastest qualifier, and for Hamilton – who turns 40 in 2025, to see if he still has some has. it takes. There are also other competitive factors at play. Hamilton’s deal is cryptically formulated by his future employer as a ‘multi-year’ agreement. In 2026, F1’s ruleset will be completely overhauled, with the hybrid contribution adding 50% of the total power.
On the one hand, should Ferrari do well and Red Bull – then separated from Honda and paired with first-year Ford – fumble, the red and gold will become F1’s most common appearance on the podium, thanks to what is the strongest driver duo of the sport would be since Hamilton. played alongside Fernando Alonso at McLaren in his debut year. On the other hand, if Hamilton were to insist on a one-plus-one deal and was defeated by Leclerc or became frustrated with Ferrari’s inner workings (and the too-regular Keystone Cops-esque pit work and strategy), he would can take just a few minutes to pursue his career. one year, with the Ferrari driver box checked.
And that’s the point: Hamilton has nothing to lose. At best, Ferrari could be fighting for second place in 2025, and it’s extremely unlikely to realistically be chasing the championship by then. So at best, the Ferrari only needs to perform the same (or better) – but no worse – than its current Mercedes to find the switch worthwhile.
That already seems like a slam dunk.
The story also contains a caveat. The route that every Niki Lauda or Michael Schumacher has ever taken to reach Maranello and whip the struggling Scuderia into championship-winning form is littered with the ruined post-Ferrari careers of Hamilton’s former rivals – Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel. Both were essentially defeated, not so much by Mercedes’ former dominance, but by the Trojan horse of Ferrari’s own blame culture, its inability to identify and respond to shortcomings in a timely manner.
Only a fool would dare to correct the inimitable Enzo Ferrari, but he was wrong: what’s behind you? do matter. Because in his F1 team it is always determined what will happen tomorrow. And as if speaking specifically for Lewis Hamilton in red, Mr. Ferrari once declared on another occasion: “the most important victory is the one that is yet to come.”
You will find the full article in the June issue of CAR Magazine.
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