Lewis Hamilton’s decision to move to Ferrari shocked everyone in the world of F1. It received both positive and negative reactions, but Hans Joachim-Stuck’s recent take stands out. The former F1 driver believes that Hamilton’s move to Ferrari will go down history and have more impact than him winning seven world titles.
Joachim-Stuck, who raced from 1974 to 1979, spoke about this to Eurosport. As quoted by Junaid Samodien on X, he stated,
“Ferrari is always something special-an institution. If you drove for Ferrari, you go down in history. Even more so than if you became world champion seven times somewhere else.”
With this, the German former F1 driver added that Ferrari functions differently from every other team. In Italy, Ferrari is ultimate and everyone comes second, and so does Hamilton.
“Ferrari is Italy. The press is completely different, they list after every little thing, there are no secrets.”
Lewis Hamilton speaks publicly for first time on ’emotional’ Mercedes exit and Ferrari move pic.twitter.com/awLXVtNfK4
— SPORTbible (@sportbible) February 14, 2024
Hamilton is the most successful F1 driver with 103 race wins, 104 pole positions, and 198 podiums under his belt. Keeping aside the seven F1 titles, what’s interesting is that he is yet to drive for Ferrari. He won six F1 titles in the last ten years, whereas Ferrari failed to land one championship in 15 years. Perhaps, the current result does not reflect how successful Ferrari have been historically.
For the British driver, the switch to Maranello has more to do than just settling for money. Driving the scarlet red Ferrari has always been a dream for Lewis Hamilton.
Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari in 2025
Lewis Hamilton parts ways with Mercedes at the end of this season. This will see the conclusion of a partnership that started during the Briton’s junior racing days. McLaren signed him when he was 13 and they had a partnership deal with Mercedes. That kept him in the McLaren-Mercedes family for 18 long years [2007-2024].
However, the move to Ferrari does not come completely out of the blue. There were rumors for several years, and Hamilton never hid the fact that he dreamed of driving for the Maranello-based outfit someday.
It’s been a crazy few days which have been filled with a whole range of emotions.
But as you all now know, after an incredible 11 years at Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, the time has come for me to start a new chapter in my life and I will be joining Scuderia Ferrari in 2025.
— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) February 3, 2024
Hamilton will move to Ferrari for a whopping $435 million fee on a multi-year deal. The British driver will take home $87 million as his base salary and $21 million in bonuses for his Mission 44 and other initiatives per year. Apart from this, Ferrari agreed to make the seven-time world champion their brand ambassador till 2035.
Mercedes, surprisingly, did not agree to these clauses. They were not ready to make Hamilton their ambassador till 2035 and weren’t willing to pay the Briton such a high salary. Nevertheless, Hamilton’s stardom already paid Ferrari back monetarily, as per reports. Following the announcement of Lewis Hamilton’s transfer to Ferrari, the Prancing Horse saw a rise of 10% in their stock. When converted to monetary terms, it crosses $7 billion in market value.
