Lewis Hamilton made his first appearance in Ferrari colors last month, almost a year after he announced he would move to the Maranello-based outfit. Ferrari welcomed him with a magnificent post — a picture of him standing in front of Enzo Ferrari’s house next to a Ferrari F40.
It broke the internet and understandably so.
The most marketable and successful F1 driver of all time joining hands with the biggest team in the sport — on paper, this partnership has success written all over it.
Hamilton‘s Ferrari announcement picture also became the most liked F1-related social media picture of all time, which clearly explained why Ferrari actually went for him in the first place. Eddie Jordan recently spoke about this picture, which earned more than 5.6 million likes, on the Formula for Success podcast.
“It just depicts why I think Ferrari went for him. He’s box office.”
It was such an iconic photo that Jordan feels Ferrari could use it for years to come and for good reason. Hamilton is F1’s most commercially appealing entity, making him a huge asset for Ferrari.
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The Italian squad’s stocks already rose by 10% just hours after his announcement became official, and merchandise got sold out almost instantly. And there is a lot of hype leading up to his first appearance in a Grand Prix.
All eyes will be on Hamilton
The fact that close to six million people double-tapped on Hamilton’s Ferrari picture showed just how many heads he turned. That he was going to become a Ferrari driver was determined a year ago, but actually seeing the seven-time World Champion standing in front of the team’s iconic founder’s house, dressed in all black, created a hype of its own.
Then came the anticipation of seeing him in red overalls behind the wheel of a Ferrari car, which the Maranello-based outfit addressed by organizing test sessions for him in Fiorano and Barcelona.
Jordan feels that these events, starting from the iconic photo, have set the stage for a huge draw of eyeballs when Hamilton takes to the F1 track as a Ferrari driver for the first time in Melbourne next month.
