Ferrari seem to have done everything in their power to convince Lewis Hamilton to join them in 2025. Not only are there reports of the Italian outfit offering the Briton a whopping $435 million deal, but also a brand ambassadorial role, among other benefits. Moreover, Ferrari chairman John Elkann also supposedly gave Hamilton a personal call to make the 39-year-old feel special and wanted. Despite all such efforts, an F1 expert has revealed the primary reason why Hamilton decided to join Ferrari.
While recently speaking on his YouTube channel, veteran F1 journalist Peter Windsor was answering some of the questions of the fans. One fan asked him if Hamilton would have signed for Ferrari, had Mattia Binotto still been the team principal instead of Fred Vasseur.
In reply, Windsor said, “I don’t think there is any way in the world Binotto would have been even able to ask Lewis to go there. He loved Carlos Sainz, so it wouldn’t even be a question if Lewis wanted to go there. It wouldn’t have been on the table anyway“.
It indeed seems to be a well-known fact about the liking Binotto had for Sainz. Even Ralf Schumacher once explained how Binotto mostly sided with Sainz and gave Charles Leclerc a hard time.
Now, with Vasseur at the helm, there is an expectation that things will change for the better. In order to get Ferrari back to the top, the Frenchman has also made another big signing alongside Hamilton.
Fred Vasseur has made another key signing alongside Lewis Hamilton
Although the drivers are the ones who usually grab all the limelight, the key to success in F1 is indeed a team effort. Neither will the drivers be able to win championships if their side does not have a strong engineering and aerodynamics department or vice versa.
Hence, alongside Lewis Hamilton, Fred Vasseur has also signed former Mercedes performance director Loic Serra in 2025. According to reports, Serra was one of the individuals who often sided with Hamilton when the Briton expressed his frustrations with the Mercedes team last year.
Now, with Hamilton jumping ship from Mercedes to Ferrari in 2025, the Briton could also convince some more of his team members to join the Italian brand over the next few months. One individual who Hamilton could convince is his race engineer Peter Bonnington.
Speculations are already rife about the 48-year-old’s future, with many fans believing that he too will leave Mercedes and join Hamilton, with whom he has formed a strong partnership over the past several seasons. However, there is one key concern that Hamilton could face in convincing engineers to move to Ferrari.
Since Ferrari is an Italian brand and most of the engineers are British, they could be reluctant to move to Maranello. The only way that could change is if the engineers also have a keenness to fulfill the dream of most F1 fans to be a part of the legendary Italian outfit.
