3 months ago
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THERE is a delicious irony in Lewis Hamilton deciding his best chance of a record eighth F1 title lies with Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari team.
The two drivers are tied on seven world championships apiece with Hamilton 103-91 ahead on race wins.
AFP
AFPThe Briton will be 40 when he pulls on the red race-overalls to drive for F1’s most iconic team in 2025 — but don’t let that fool you into thinking he is over the hill.
Hamilton could have stayed with Mercedes where he had a contract in place for next year but instead of sticking, has decided to twist.
It is not motivated by money — rather his desire to secure that elusive eighth world crown.
Despite Red Bull making it clear they did not see him as part of their future, Hamilton appears to have run out of confidence in Mercedes after they delivered two dud cars in successive seasons.
Just as Schumacher did when he joined Ferrari in 1996, Hamilton has the potential to galvanise the Italian team and turn them into world-beaters.
The reality is he needs Ferrari as much as they need him to help deliver their first constructors’ title since 2008.
Hamilton’s move is unexpected — despite incorrect reports saying it was done last summer — but not out of character.
When he quit McLaren in 2012 to join Mercedes the following season, many questioned the logic.
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McLaren were regular winners and Mercedes were not.
But the late Niki Laudi sold Hamilton on the Silver Arrows’ vision for 2014 and beyond — a new era of regulations with hybrid engines — and he joined a year ahead of those changes.
He went on to add SIX titles to the one he won in 2008 at McLaren in a crushing spell of dominance.
Fast forward 11 years and we are faced with a similar prospect. New rules are coming in for 2026 — and Hamilton is going a year earlier.
This time, Fred Vasseur delivered the pitch and Hamilton knows the Ferrari team principal well, having won the GP2 title in 2006 for his ART team.
The pace at which the deal was concluded, as he exercised the break-clause in his Mercedes deal, clearly caught his current employers out.
Mercedes hurriedly briefed their staff on Thursday that their star driver was off — a killer blow ahead of a new season which starts in Bahrain on March 2.
So what next? Hamilton faces a tricky 11 months at a team who know he is departing for their rivals.
For the first time in his career he will be the outsider in his own team and excluded from meetings about the development of Mercedes’ challenger for 2025.
EPAWHO COULD REPLACE HAMILTON AT MERCEDES?
Mercedes will have a vacant seat for 2025.
Here, SunSport’s F1 correspondent Ben Hunt looks at FIVE potential candidates who could replace him and partner George Russell in the Silver Arrows.
Oscar Piastri – McLaren have sewn up Lando Norris to a new long-term contract that should (in theory) put him out of Mercedes’ reach. However, they are yet to tie down his teammate Piastri, 22. The Aussie has an excellent record and won the Formula 3 and Formula 2 titles before spending a year on the sidelines with Alpine and getting his chance in F1 with McLaren. He impressed on his debut season last year and has the potential to be a world champion.
Daniel Ricciardo – The experienced driver’s future remains in doubt as he bides his time at Red Bull’s B-team. Ricciardo would be low-hassle and offer some stability but by that time he would be 35. It seems unlikely that they would opt for him at this point in his career, but if he has a good season this year, he could come into the reckoning.
Kimi Antonelli – You may not have heard of the Italian, but he is mustard. Still only 17, he has won at all the junior categories and has been part of the Mercedes young driver programme since 2019. This season he has been promoted from F4 to F2, where he has been tipped to shine. A good debut season in F2 could sway Mercedes into taking a risk on him for 2025. Antonelli and his family are close to Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.
Mick Schumacher – Wolff has always been so incredibly supportive of Schumacher and spoken highly of him, that you’d at least expect him to come into consideration. He knows the team from his role as reserve driver and consequently would get up to speed. But speed is also the problem. He was shocking at Haas and if he really was THAT good, he’d still be driving in F1.
Alex Albon – A more-sensible choice would be the London-born Albon. A great guy who is also very quick. He has a fantastic relationship with Russell and would be the low-maintenance quick partnership similar to Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas that swept to successive titles. Albon would take little convincing to join from Williams and Mercedes would not need to pay him half of the £50million they were dishing out to Hamilton.
But one thing for sure — Hamilton will want to go out with a bang.
He is desperate for a race win to end the longest wait of his career — stretching back to the penultimate race of the 2021 season in Saudi Arabia before he lost his world crown to Max Verstappen.
His arrival will be a shot in the arm to Ferrari and act as a wake-up call to eradicate the operational mistakes which have cost them in recent years.
He was personally selected by Ferrari chairman John Elkann, a long-term admirer of Hamilton’s talent.
It will also add pressure on Charles Leclerc, the Ferrari driver who has just signed a new deal with the team but has a poor conversation rate of five wins in 23 pole positions.
It makes for an exciting prospect and is the shot-in-the arm F1 needed after Verstappen’s dominance in 2023.
We might have to wait another year before the Red Bull ace is seriously challenged but the prospect of Verstappen being challenged by Hamilton in a Ferrari is tantalising.
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