Although it is the drivers who grab most of the spotlight in F1, they know more than anyone else that this is a team sport. Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton too would be aware of the same and if he is to win a record eighth title, he will need all the support he can get from his new team, Ferrari.
Winning over the trust of his Ferrari colleagues will be far from easy as the Briton is joining a team that has been built around Charles Leclerc, a driver who has already spent six seasons at Maranello. So, Hamilton understands that if he wants to turn his time at Ferrari into a success, he needs to galvanize the team around him.
But per former F1 driver Karun Chandhok, it’s not so easy. “He’s going to Charles’ team,” the Indian expert began when Ted Kravitz asked him what he made of Hamilton’s remarks that he wanted to galvanize the Ferrari team around him.
Chandhok said that in the end, the team will back the driver who is winning. So, if Hamilton wants his team members to trust him, he needs to hit the ground running as soon as possible. History suggests that the Briton should not have much trouble in achieving the same.
️ “Now he feels he has a car to win again”
Ted Kravitz on Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari pic.twitter.com/wiFsyTxKOU
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) March 7, 2025
No F1 driver in history has perhaps made as much of an instant impact as Hamilton. The Briton had arguably the best-ever rookie season back in 2007 when he joined two-time champion Fernando Alonso at McLaren and ended up finishing the campaign level on points with the Spaniard. Had he scored just one more point he could’ve been champion ahead of Kimi Raikkonen.
Hamilton’s successes in 2007 gave McLaren the confidence to revolve the team around him in 2008 and ultimately the Briton repaid the faith shown in him by winning his maiden Drivers’ Championship that year. A similar path of success followed Hamilton when he moved to Mercedes in 2013.
Can Hamilton repeat his Mercedes feats at Ferrari?
Joining Nico Rosberg — who had been at Mercedes since 2010 — as a teammate, Hamilton once again had the task of gaining his team’s confidence. He had a slow start to life at Brackley as he just managed one win in his first season.
But it is the glittering success that followed that became etched in F1 history for years to come. Hamilton won six of his seven Drivers’ Championships with Mercedes and beat Rosberg to win two of those titles.
However, experts believe that achieving something similar at Ferrari will be difficult. F1 journalist Nate Saunders on ESPN’s Unlapped podcast pointed out how Ferrari is no longer a team, whose ideology is to revolve the entire side around one driver.
“He [Schumacher] was clear number one and then he had some poor teammate [Irvine/Barrichello] who basically just had to carry water for the whole time. That’s not the way Ferrari does things now,” Saunders explained.
Both Chandhok and Saunders seem to suggest the same thing — if Hamilton wants Ferrari to trust him, he needs to show that he still has the potential to win and that will begin by outperforming Leclerc, who will be determined to achieve the same thing.
