Hamilton ‘excited’, but what lies ahead at Ferrari?
MILAN – Despite years of speculation, it still came as a bombshell when the news filtered through that Lewis Hamilton would be switching from Mercedes at the end of the coming season to drive for Ferrari, that most iconic of racing stables.
Hamilton said that he was ‘excited’ and that the ‘time was right’ for a move but the question remains whether his gamble, announced on Thursday, will pay off on the track.
It is a move that echoes his decision to jump from McLaren, where he had won the 2008 drivers’ title, before the 2013 season. “This is unreal! Biggest drivers move shock since... Lewis left McLaren for Mercedes!” tweeted pundit and racing driver Karun Chandhok on X.
Like McLaren in 2012, Mercedes has dropped behind a dominant Red Bull team. Even though 12 years ago Hamilton was switching between teams that were both much slower than Red Bull, he made the right decision as he collected six more world titles.
But he was 28 when he first drove for Mercedes: He will be 40 when he takes his Ferrari seat. Maybe he has seen something that has convinced him that he has a better chance of breaking the tie for most driver titles with Michael Schumacher, who won five of his seven with Ferrari. But there were reportedly tensions with Mercedes over his contract.
In 2013, his first season at Mercedes, Hamilton finished a distant fourth as Sebastian Vettel won a fourth straight title. The following season, Hamilton won the title and went on to take five of the next six, missing out only in 2016 when teammate Nico Rosberg edged him by five points.