Lewis Hamilton will experience a seismic shift in his career with his upcoming move to Ferrari in 2025. And despite having spent 18 years at the pinnacle of motorsport, he may have to tread cautiously. Having raced in Mercedes-powered cars to date, the Briton will take time to understand the different car philosophy and team culture at Maranello.
Still, Hamilton will see a few familiar faces from Mercedes. Earlier this year, former performance director of the Brackley outfit, Loic Serra joined Ferrari to take up the technical director’s duties. Even Jerome D’Ambrosio has jumped ship to the Italian stable as the deputy team principal after serving in a similar role at Mercedes for a brief period.
There is a possibility that Hamilton may not feel much different after seeing these known associates at Ferrari. But, team principal Frederic Vasseur wishes to avoid this ‘Mercedes-like experience’ for the incoming seven-time world champion.
“It won’t be a copy-paste of the Mercedes experience. I know Lewis and I know that’s exactly what he doesn’t want. And then in recent years we have won more than them”, Vasseur said as per Corriere della Serra.
Lewis Hamilton didn’t need much convincing to join Ferrari pic.twitter.com/YQgSK88616
— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) December 19, 2024
Even Hamilton knows that despite these few familiar engineers, Ferrari will have a completely different culture in terms of communication, work ethic, and on-track operations. For starters, he has been working on learning Italian to have better communication with his mechanics and engineers at the Maranello outfit.
Naturally, he is expecting that this fresh start at Ferrari will yield him better results than what he has recently experienced at Mercedes.
Hamilton would like Ferrari to do their thing
It would be strange to say that Hamilton would hate Mercedes’ ways of developing cars and operating the team, as that’s what helped him dominate during the turbo-hybrid era for eight seasons. However, his recent experience with the Silver Arrows has influenced the #44 driver to seek some change.
Hamilton won’t mind a 180-degree shift in the way he operates on track, adapting to new systems and processes at Ferrari. Because whatever Vasseur and Co. have done in the past two seasons has worked well to get the Scuderia back into championship contention.
The Briton has struggled with Mercedes not listening to his feedback on the car development as well as the handling of the car. Their track operations and strategy have also faltered relative to how seamless they used to be from 2014 to 2021.
Meanwhile, Ferrari have picked up the slack on these aspects under Vasseur’s leadership, besides having more ultimate performance than the Silver Arrows all along since 2022.
Hamilton is confident that the Maranello outfit will carry on this trajectory to provide him with a championship-winning car and he is keen to help them bridge any gaps they have with the ton of experience he brings on board.
