The news that Lewis Hamilton would be trading Silver for Scarlet Red in 2025 stunned the world back in February. About nine months later, Fred Vasseur has now revealed some truths about the biggest news of the year. The team principal has revealed that moving to Ferrari was already “in his thoughts.”
Given that Lewis Hamilton signed a contract extension with Mercedes in the summer of 2023, the news that came to follow in February was quite unexpected. On multiple occasions, the 7-time World Champion reiterated that he claimed Mercedes as his home and that his intentions were to retire at the German outfit.
However, when we entered into the new year, rumours about the move began swirling around. It wasn’t the first time such whispers had made their round throughout the paddock – it was pretty much routine, much like ‘Sergio Perez set to announce his retirement at the Mexico Grand Prix.’ To the surprise of many though, the rumours turned out to be true this time around.
On February 1, Ferrari announced that they had signed a multi-year deal with Lewis Hamilton, who shortly after confirmed the news.
It was quite the contradiction to the seemingly positive news from Mercedes in last year’s summer. Clearly, though, something happened behind the scenes that triggered Lewis Hamilton into activating a release clause in his one-plus-one deal. Perhaps it was the fact that Ferrari offered Hamilton a multi-year deal which naturally trumps a one-plus-one deal.
While many may have assumed that it took a lot for the Scuderia to convince the face of the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team to jump ship, Fred Vasseur’s words contradict our initial assumptions.
“It wasn’t difficult actually. Ferrari has always been in his thoughts in some ways and now the stars have aligned.
“But he comes to win, not on vacation. And I’m convinced that we have everything to try.” – Vasseur told Gazzetta dello Sport.
Lewis Hamilton has also previously spoken about the motive behind his move.
“Of course, I think for every driver growing up, watching the history, watching Michael Schumacher in his prime, I think probably all of us sit in our garage and see the screen pop up, and you see the driver in the red cockpit and you wonder what it would be like to be surrounded by the red.
“You go to the Italian Grand Prix and you see the sea of red Ferrari fans and you can only stand in awe of that.
“It’s a team that’s not had huge success recently, since 2007, and I saw it as a huge challenge.
“Without a doubt, even as a kid, I used to play [on games] as Michael in that car, so it definitely is a dream and I’m excited about it.” – Lewis Hamilton.
With every word that comes out of those affiliated with Ferrari, it is clear that the Italian team have great respect for the man they’re bringing into their team. Naturally, that would be nothing short of alluring for Lewis Hamilton. Especially seeing as Hamilton himself has often spoken highly of Ferrari, Charles Leclerc and Fred Vasseur.
“For Lewis, it will be something fresh. His relationship with Fred Vasseur will be positive and benefit the team. He really respects him. Then there is Charles to deal with at the same time which will really motivate him. It is all about motivation for the driver.” – Johnny Herbert was speaking to Vision4Sport, who offer hospitality for next year’s Monaco Grand Prix, click here for tickets.
Vasseur has worked with Hamilton before. The Frenchman was part of Lewis Hamilton’s Formula 3 and GP2 success, credit that the ex-McLaren driver has shared with Vasseur.
“I’ve got a great relationship with Fred. Obviously I raced with him in Formula 3, and we had amazing success in Formula 3 and also in GP2.
“And that’s really where the foundation of our relationship started. We just always remained in touch.
“I thought that he was going to be an amazing team manager at some stage and progress to Formula 1, but at the time he wasn’t interested in that.
“It was really cool to see him step into the Alfa [Romeo] team and then when he got the job at Ferrari I was just so happy for him, and I think just the stars aligned.
“I think it really wouldn’t have happened without him, so I’m really grateful and really excited about the work that he’s doing there.” – Lewis Hamilton.