MILAN – The signing of seven-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton for 2025 represents a huge opportunity for Ferrari and also a challenge, team boss Fred Vasseur said on Feb 13.
Hamilton, 39, is the sport’s most successful driver with a record 103 wins, while Ferrari are the most successful team as well as the oldest and most glamorous. But they have not won a Formula One championship since 2008 – coincidentally, that was when Hamilton won his first world title.
Commenting for the first time on the deal announced on Feb 1, Vasseur told reporters at the launch of Ferrari’s new car that it also removed a distraction as the driver “silly season” picks up speed.
“A huge opportunity for the team, for sure. We are sure that he will bring us a decent step for the future and it will be a good challenge for everybody,” he said.
Vasseur, who has been close to Hamilton since the Briton raced for him in junior series, said Ferrari wanted to focus on 2024 and that was also why the announcement came so early.
Hamilton will replace Carlos Sainz at the team and Vasseur said he was convinced the Spaniard would remain committed to the last corner of the last lap of the season.
The Frenchman said telling Sainz of the decision was tough but the hardest call was to Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, an old friend.
“As you can imagine, it was not the easiest call of my life,” he said of the conversation with Sainz.
“One of the most difficult was the one with Toto.”
However, Sainz is trying to look ahead. Both he and his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc sounded positive on Feb 13 after their first laps in the car they hope will challenge dominant Formula One champions Red Bull this season.
The SF-24 car was launched at the Italian team’s Fiorano test track, with both drivers hoping it would be easier to drive and develop through the longest of campaigns with a record 24 races.
Leclerc recalled how in 2023 he had not been happy with the overly sensitive car’s behaviour after three or four laps of the shakedown.
“This year, the car feels healthier and in a better place,” he told reporters after three laps.
“In terms of actual feeling of the very first laps, I would say I’ve had a better feeling this year than I did last year,” he added, while cautioning that it meant nothing if rivals had made bigger steps.
The sport’s most successful team, and the only one to have competed in every world championship since 1950, dropped to third overall in 2023 behind Red Bull and Mercedes.
Spaniard Sainz, who did two laps, said: “It was a good installation lap, nothing happened. So far, everything is going smoothly.”
Sainz was the only driver last season to beat Red Bull, his victory in Singapore denying the champions a sweep of all 22 races.
The car is the first fully conceived under Vasseur, who took over from Mattia Binotto in January 2023, and the Frenchman said the team needed to continue last season’s strong finish.
“We have also to be focused on the weaknesses of 2023 and to be much more opportunistic in terms of points scored and we will be focused on this,” he added.
Ferrari ended last season with Leclerc runner-up to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in Abu Dhabi but still 17.9sec behind the triple world champion, whose team had long given up developing their car.
Chassis technical director Enrico Cardile said every area of the Ferrari had been redesigned.
“We have taken on board what the drivers told us and turned those ideas into engineering reality, with the aim of giving them a car that’s easier to drive and therefore easier to get the most out of and push it to its limits,” he said.
The mostly red car, the 70th that Ferrari have built to compete in Formula One, features yellow longitudinal stripes for the first time since 1968, along with some white.
The season starts in Bahrain on March 2. REUTERS
