Last Updated on January 5 2025, 12:04 pm

Roll the calendar back a year and Lewis Hamilton together with his Mercedes team were looking to their Formula One future with a tiny new agreement signed between the pair. Yet the reality was quite different.

The mood music emanating from Maranello via the Italian press had Ferrari team boss on record stating he was happy with his current driver lineup of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. Come the turn of the New Year, Fred Vasseur had admitted the team intended to have both contract extensions resolved already.

“I have to admit the last part of the season was a big chaos for everybody and I think it was very demanding and we had meetings and started the discussion, but we are late compared to the initial plan,” said the boss of the Scuderia.

 

 

 

Leclerc only announcement raised suspicions

Yet behind the scenes a conversation was taking place between Lewis Hamilton and group Ferrari chairman John Elkann and by January 25th, when the team announced only a new deal for Leclerc, it was evident something was afoot.

Despite having Lewis Hamilton recruited against his stated wishes, Fred Vasseur has handled well the media frenzy surrounding the British driver’s move to Italy for almost twelve months now. Yet Hamilton is THE Ferrari story at present and will remain so until battle commences on track.

Italian media reported this week that Hamilton is already influencing the design of the Ferrari 2025 F1 challenger – codename project 677 – as the team reportedly adjusted the cockpit position of both of the cars.

Hamilton is known to be close to Ferrari chassis designer Loic Serra who joined the Scuderia just three months ago from Mercedes where Lewis had made his views plain for all to hear that the driving position on the Mercedes W15 was too far forward.

Colapinto F1 return in 2025 rumours persist

 

 

 

Ferrari suspension to suit Hamilton

With the conclusion of the 2024 F1 season behind us, further reports in the Italian media revealed Ferrari would be rolling out the red carpet for their latest seven times world champion as they made available to Lewis, Enzo Ferrari’s house in Fiorano. This privilege has only ever been afforded to Michael Schumacher who helped lead the team during their most dominant period in F1 history.

Ferrari are taking Hamilton’s integration into the F1 team as seriously as is possible. Again the Italian press have suggested he made between four and five visits to Maranello even before the end of the 2024 season.

Project 677 is believed to have switched front suspension design from push rod to pull rod in an attempt to improve airflow towards the complex underbody where a significant level of downforce is created.

This move to a pull rod design front suspension is said to be influenced directly by Hamilton’s arrival, given his driving style is closer to that of Leclerc’s than was Carlos Sainz. Ferrari will though retain their controversial pull rod rear suspension despite the departure of its prime advocate and former technical director, Enrico Cardile.

Alonso rally switch

 

 

 

First 6 weeks “critical” says Vasseur

Now just Ferrari and their customer team Haas F1 are the only teams competing with a pull rod rear suspension, the combination  is believed to have been a key factor behind the 2024 car’s excellent tyre management in 2024.

At the team’s official Christmas lunch in December, Fred Vasseur claimed that Hamilton’s first six weeks with the team were “critical” and apart from some alpine snow boarding time over new year, Lewis looks as though his winter break where he will turn 40, will be shorter than usual.

Weather permitting, Hamilton’s first outing in the red liveried racing car will take place at the team’s test circuit in Fiorano on February 20/21st. This will be under the FIA’s testing of precious cars (TPC) regulations which were recently altered to restrict its use by full tine F1 drivers.

Each team now has a limit each year of 1,000 kilometres for both their full time drivers for testing of previous cars. Hamilton will be given Ferrari’s entire 2025 allowance as Charles Leclerc is stripped of the opportunity.

Hamilton was “troublesome” reveals Mercedes insider

 

 

 

Hamilton gets Leclerc testing allowance

Following the days in Fiorano, Ferrari and Hamilton have planned a week long series of test sessions at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. Whilst adhering to the 1,000 kilometre limit, the week is focused around integrating Hamilton fully into the new Ferrari race weekend crews.

The test in Barcelona is clearly not about maximising track time but to offer Lewis the opportunity to learn who are his engineers and build rapport with the mechanics and perform base line data analysis against Lelcerc’s previous performances in the same car.

The award to Lewis of the entire Ferrari annual TPC allowance is a significant gesture of support for the ex-Mercedes driver, who will be hoping to rebuild his confidence after being crushed by his team mate last year.

When Hamilton announced he was leaving Mercedes, there was much hype about whether he would be taking his long standing race engineer, Pete Bonnington. Yet the team secured Bono’s future by offering him an expanded role with greater responsibility and refused to entertain him leaving for Italy.

Marko verdict on Mercedes protege

 

 

 

Ferrari pull out all thew stops

This week Ferrari announced via La Gazzetta dello Sport that Riccardo Adami will serve as Hamilton’s race engineer for the 2025 season. Adami, a seasoned veteran, previously worked as Carlos Sainz’s race engineer (2021-24) and played a crucial role during Sebastian Vettel’s tenure at Ferrari from 2015 to 2020.

Any driver moving to Ferrari cold be easily overwhelmed by the significant differences in culture, language and even the very weight of the organisations history and for Hamilton this will be very different from when he moved from McLaren to Mercedes.

Yet his relationship with Vasseur should be relatively straight forward, given the Frenchman headed up the team in which Hamilton won his GP2 campaign. Long time manager, Marc Hynes, will be accommodated by Ferrari as with a number of Lewis’ entourage including trainers, security staff and PR personnel.

Ferrari have pulled out all the stops for Lewis Hamilton, even at risk of snubbing their own protege, Charles Leclerc. Yet the talking will all be done on track between the Ferrari duo and with pre-season testing just six weeks away, time to get up to speed is short.

Verdict on Verstappen’s Mercedes move

 

 

 

Cadillac sparks debate over FIA license favouritism

FIA called out on bias over license criteria – Fans and Formula One pundits alike were almost universal in their support for the expansion of the number of teams competing in the sport. The Andretti proposal to become the eleventh team on the grid was given the green light by the FIA almost eighteen months ago, but found its route to competition blocked by the Liberty Media owned Formula One Management (FOM) group.

The exclusion came to the attention of the US Justice department which coincidentally had recently fined the NFL almost $5 billion for anti-competitive practices. A shuffle of personnel at the top of Liberty Media and Andretti Racing saw a fast track agreement reached before the Las Vegas Grand Prix, for the Andretti application to morph into one in the name of Cadillac, who claim they will build their own F1 power unit by the end of the decade.

More teams on the F1 grid means more opportunity for young drivers, who in recent years have found it tough to make it into the pinnacle of motorsport. The FIA has its own series of feeder racing programmes designed as a pathway to ultimately reach Formula One but unlike at the inception of the GP2 and GP3 series back in 2005, less and less champions are making it all the way to a full tie F1 drive…. READ MORE