The real market coup comes where football doesn’t reign. Lewis Hamiltonil Iconic Formula 1 driversuccessful, histrionic, at the forefront also on major social issues, not only for Black Lives Matter, is preparing to wear the Ferrari red jersey: a bomb, the English immediately say, which is already at suggestion only they had warmed spirits due to the sensational move of the seven-time world champion to the Maranello Team.
Hamilton’s hiring is on everyone’s lips, it has been around the world, and the closing of a lightning deal, a month before the start of the new season, arrives in the evening after a day chasing rumors and unofficial certainties. First, Mercedes announces that at the end of the 2024 season Lewis will no longer be driving the Silver Arrow, having enforced the termination clause contained in the renewal signed in the summer. Then Ferrari shouts to the world and its fans in a few lines: Hamilton will be part of the team from 2025, and with a multi-year contract. Before the short press releases, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff had confirmed the indiscretion privately to all the team’s employees, urgently summoned to the English factory in Brackley.
“I’m excited about this new challenge” said Hamilton, without mentioning Ferrari in deference to the political correctness of communication. «I have spent 11 wonderful years with this team – the words of the Englishman, who remains a Mercedes driver for the entire next season – and I am so proud of what we have achieved together. The decision to leave was one of the most difficult he has ever had to make.” Wolff greeted Hamilton with fair play, implicitly dispelling suspicions of an even more brutal breakup: «In terms of the team-driver combination, our relationship with Lewis has become the most successful the sport has ever seen, and that’s something to which we can look back with pride; Lewis will always be an important part of the history of Mercedes motorsport – in his words -. However, we knew that our partnership would come to an end naturally sooner or later, and that day has come. We accept Lewis’ decision to seek a new challenge and our opportunities for the future are exciting to contemplate. But for now, we still have a season to go and we are focused on racing to deliver a strong 2024.”
An end-of-career dream
In short, Hamilton is in Ferrari a surprise movean earthquake in the Circus, but also the crowned dream – albeit at the end of his career – for the most emblematic athlete in the world of single-seaters. And already when he will be able to drive his first Hamilton Red, born in 1985, he will be 40 years old: not a record in terms of longevity (Fernando Alonso is on the track and still going at 42), but certainly, to put it to the English, the last dance for the first black driver in Formula 1.
The agreement between Ferrari and Hamilton, seven times world champion (2008, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020) brings to life a suggestion that over the years has seen the baronet’s name linked to Maranello several times. “It’s a dream to be able to drive Ferrari”, the Briton had also recently admitted, who will join Charles Leclerc, twelve years younger, fresh from a long renewal and invested with a mission that the Cavallino has been pursuing for a lifetime : the conquest of that world title that has been missing since 2007. In a year we will understand, with the 2024 results in hand, what the value scales will be between two number ones: there are already those who foresee sparks.
Making room for Hamilton will be Sainz, whose contract expires at the end of the 2024 season and whose possible renewal was discussed in recent weeks. “I will give everything next season”, the bitter observation of the Spaniard, at this point in his last season in the Reds.
The clause of the contract
Last August Hamilton had extended the relationship with Mercedes (which he has led since 2013) until the end of 2025: but the agreement contained a clause which allowed him to leave Wolff’s team early. And the same friendship between the boss of the Mercedes wall and the champion from Stevenage could have paved the way for the premature farewell: but also the bond with Fred Vasseur, team principal of the new Ferrari course. “Yes, we talk to Lewis often,” the Frenchman let slip.
Now the asymmetrical combination between the most unconventional driver of the Circus and the tradition of Maranello is complete. He will land in Ferrari, the fans rejoice: for them, what matters more than Lewis’ civil battles seven titles on the board.
2024-02-04 20:19:29
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