Last Updated on February 8 2025, 3:29 pm
Its almost a year since since Lewis Hamilton shocked the Formula One world by announcing just months after signing a new contract with Mercedes, he would be leaving the team which brought him almost all of his F1 success to join Ferrari.
His reasoning for the move has been analysed more than Donald Trumps potential effect on the global economy and evidence does exist the breakup was not underpinned by Bonhomie. Toto Wolff questioned the timing of Hamilton’s announcement, the day he faced the media for the first time to respond to the news.
The Mercedes hoss clearly felt it was going to be the longest of farewells, and maybe Lewis could have held his water for longer. Then again Hamilton resounded, explaining there were too many people now in the loop and he was concerned about the news leaking out.
Hamilton animosity with Mercedes
Later in last season, Wolff gave another interview where he explained the reasoning for both Hamilton and Russell only receiving what was a one year plus an option for a second, suggesting all F1 drivers have a “shelf life.”
Wolff last week again made an attempt to make like of the separation of the most successful partnership ever between an F1 driver and a team suggesting that like with an amicable divorce, he was happy to see Lewis with “a new friend.”
Yet were there any animosity involved, it clearly began with Hamilton who strangely suggested at the announcement of his “multi-year” Mercedes deal, that “this will not be my last F1 driving contract.” Given that early in the negations, a report emerged suggesting Lewis was looking to finish his F1 career with Mercedes as a driver, but with an open ended leaving date and that he was looking for a ten year ambassador role for the German automotive brand.
None of this came to pass after almost nine months of protracted negotiations and there remains the suspicion that after the announcement of his new Mercedes’ deal, Hamilton was straight on phone to Ferrari group president, John Elkann, enquiring about any opportunity that may arise for him as a driver within the Scuderia.
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F1 Scuderia bias
Now Hamilton is bedding down in his new F1 home in Italy and team boss Fred Vasseur has made every effort to make the British drivers’ orientation as smooth as possible. Yet it cannot be ignored that Ferrari is unique amongst the F1 teams. Not only are they the only team in the sport that was there on day one in 1950, but their iconic history dwarfs that of the remaining competitors and most important they are Italian through and through.
During Ferrari’s most successful era was when the team won six consecutive constructor titles and Michael Schumacher five driver championships, the team was run by a Frenchman Jean Totd along with quintessential Englishman Ross Brawn and a host of other “foreigner” senior figures.
As Ferrari’s success faded, following Renault claiming back to back titles, Ferrari president Luca de Montezemolo claimed Ferrari was not bringing through Italian engineers, which led to certain F1 writers to posit, he wanted the team in fact run by Italians.
This indeed was how the future for the team panned out and for the next fifteen years Italian bosses were promoted to run the Scuderia. Stefano Domenicali (2008-2014), Marco Mattiacci (2014), Marizio Arrivabene (2015-2018) and Mattia Binotto (2019-2022).
Hamilton’s lacks linguistic skills
Ferrari did win the drivers’ title in Domenicali’s first season, although it was more because the McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso’s feud saw them take points from each other, both falling short by a single point at the end of the year to Kimi Raikkonen. The following season Ferrari were constructors’ champions but this was to be the last of the championships to this very day, for the iconic red liveried F1 team.
Ferrari are like a national team in Italy and a times garner greater support than even the Italian national football team. Those who work in Maranello are subsumed in the proud Italian culture and history of the Scuderia and a quick glance at their recent roster of drivers demonstrates that even the greatest of champions must fit into the way of life when joining the Italian F1 team.
Lewis Hamilton is the first driver in fifteen years who does not speak Italian. Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen, Sebastian Vettel, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz are all fluent in the language which demonstrates a respect for th eFerrari heritage and tradition.
Brits of Hamilton’s age are notorious for their complete lack of linguistic skills and whilst Hamilton is believed to be learning Italian, he is unlikely to ever be fluent. The transition from what is an English racing team under a German brand for Hamilton will be the toughest challenge have has faced for some time, maybe ever and now Bernie Ecclestone shares his thoughts on the task ahead for Lewis.
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Lewis’ “enemies” lay in wait
Eccleston lived and breathed F1 for decades and though often described as the F1 supremo, he had to regularly negotiate hard with Ferrari for anything new he wanted to get done. Bernie believes Lewis may even encounter those who never wished hm to join the team, describing them as “enemies” he will encounter from day 1.
“I don’t think Lewis will get the same attention at,” Ecclestone tells The Telegraph. “Firstly, the team are happy with Charles Leclerc, his team-mate. Leclerc speaks their language [he’s fluent in Italian], so they’ll be looking after him.”Even if Lewis does well, there’ll still be a lot of enemies, because he has suddenly arrived.”
Bernie was asked whether the age difference of thirteen years will affect Hamilton and he responded. “I have my theory about this. It’s not the age with drivers, it’s how long they have been doing the same thing. I have thought with Lewis, ‘He’s getting tired. He has lost motivation’. If he had never won a world championship, it might be different, because then there would be an incentive to win one. But he has won seven.”
Brand Hamilton and #Team44 at times have rocked the F1 establishment with DEI initiatives, rows over wearing jewellery, calling out racism in the FIA president and of course he is synonymous with a style of fashion not usually associated with motor racing.
Win or lose? Outlandish attire
Lewis arrived in Maranello wearing a double-breasted suit, long coat, and red-soled Louboutin boots with a black pin stripe suit and a white shirt and tie. The outfit was supposed to be a contemporary expression of Italian classic fashion, yet for many in Maranello this was just another outlandish expression of how Hamilton wants to be different.
Ecclestone concludes with the thoughts many ordinary Italians working in the factory at HQ may share. “He has a lot of talent as a driver. As much as people credit him with? No, but still enough to win races,” he said. “I don’t know why he does all this other nonsense. He needs to get out of the music business and whatever else.”
Of course Ferrari is Lewis’ final hope of claiming that record eight F1 drivers’ title, beating the record set by the great Michael Schumacher back in 2004. Yet he faces the “chosen one” form Ferrari’s own academy and Charles Leclerc is also a very fast F1 driver in which the tifosi have placed their trust to return gory to their team.
Hamilton’s trade mark outspoke manner may well have to be curbed now he is a Ferrari driver. Those who have criticised the team for creating cars which were less than connotative include Alain Prost and Fernando Alonso.
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Prost describing the 1990 Maranello creation as a “truck.” Prost added, “I’ve never driven such a bad car. Yesterday with a full tank of gas we noticed that the steering locks up completely in big curves, that’s a very serious mechanical problem that worsened during the season.”
Ferrari boss responded with this to say about his ‘foreign’ outspoken driver. “Ferrari took this decision to stop with Alain Prost both for the last Grand Prix and for next season. The relationship between a top driver and a top team involves the performance of the driver and then the behaviour of the driver,”explained Claudio Lombardi.
“For the first point we are very happy with the performance of Alain Prost. I personally worked with Alain for the last four months and I think he is really a very good driver and a fantastic test driver. The second point is behaviour.
“The behaviour of Alain Prost during this season has not been at the level that Ferrari would like from a top driver. His behaviour inside and outside the team meant that Ferrari had to stop the relationship,” concluded the Italian.
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Can Hamilton hold his tongue?
So even though Prost’s performances on track were satisfactory, his deal at Ferrari was terminated for his lack of respect towards the team. Lewis Hamilton is known for wearing his heart on his sleeve and recently slammed senior personnel at Mercedes for not “listening to me.”
Fernando Alonso was not exactly sacked, yet his repeated disputes with the team saw him leave under a cloud without a contract renewal.
He then called for “accountability” and within weeks the team’s technical director was ‘moved on’, leaving the team just a few months later. Hamilton is already expected to struggle to match the pace of his younger team mate and should this be the case he will have to reign in his outspoken nature and refrain from any and all criticism of his new employers.
Whilst Ecclestone may be overstating the case that “enemies” lie in wait for the seven ties world champion, he is right that there are those in Ferrari just waiting him to make a mis-step before writing him off as another one of those ”foreigners.”
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With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
But those Italian speaking drivers didn’t win Ferrari a championship in the last fifteen years so cut out the BS. Hamilton probably has more wins than most drivers put together. It’s business and who else has took Ferrari bistro this all time stock high? Do the math and park your racism.