There is a lot of hype building up to Lewis Hamilton’s arrival at Ferrari, and the Italian brand’s CEO Benedetto Vigna understands its significance. While he is all praises for the seven-time world champion, the 55-year-old has also set the motto for the Maranello-based team as they gear up for a coveted championship challenge in 2025.
“The fundamental thing is to learn from mistakes,” Vigna said while also revealing that Hamilton will arrive at Maranello next week to prepare for the upcoming season. He added that Hamilton’s move to Ferrari will provide both parties with an opportunity to learn from each other.
“It will give us a new push. Lewis will learn things from us, and we will learn others from him,” the Ferrari CEO said. “It is like dancing, the important thing is not to lose step”.
Vigna is quite impressed with Hamilton’s adaptability and willingness to change at the age of 40, given he made such a late-career move to switch teams. He understands that moving from Mercedes to Ferrari won’t be easy for the British driver, who has been accustomed to UK-based teams’ work ethic and team culture.
“He has embraced a culture that is different from many points of view, compared to the Anglo-Saxon one,”Vigna said.
| Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna speaks on Sir Lewis Hamilton’s arrival in Maranello:
“There is a lot of (excitement), there is a lot of desire to start. We are preparing the last things, Lewis will start and will come to us next week. We are ready for almost everything, nothing… pic.twitter.com/79Ngr5NjwF
— Ferrari Focus (@Scuderiascoop) January 16, 2025
The challenges of familiarizing with the Italian team’s culture is something Hamilton is well aware of and has acknowledged that he will have to work his way through the contrasting environment at Ferrari.
Nevertheless, Vigna will hope that Hamilton settles in smoothly with the team to work towards making this ‘greatest-ever driver-team partnership’ a truly successful one on all fronts. The primary objective is rather clear as Ferrari will aim to end its championship drought and also help the #44 driver win his elusive eighth world title.
Vigna believes the ingredients are definitely there for them to win their first title since 2008, especially after how close Ferrari came last season.
Vigna’s silver lining in Ferrari’s 2024 title loss
While the 2024 season had a rather non-competitive drivers’ championship battle, the fight for the Constructors’ title went down to the wire. McLaren had the upper hand over Ferrari and eventually, they came out triumphant, beating the Italian team by only 14 points. Despite that, Vigna highlighted the silver lining in this agonizing loss.
He mentioned how he “thanked the whole team, from Fred Vasseur to the mechanics” at the Abu Dhabi GP owing to how far they had come due to the work done throughout the season. Even though they lost the championship, the culture and atmosphere Vasseur and his subordinates developed seem to be the perfect foundation for future championship success.
It all seems to be falling into place for Ferrari in 2025 with a good base car to develop upon and two superstar drivers — Hamilton and Charles Leclerc — to maximize its potential. Their car development has also delivered good results and even turned around a problematic upgrade in the middle of the 2024 season to return to winning ways.
Vigna and his colleagues in the top management will hope that the team continues to figure out a way out of tough situations in the same manner they did last year, and they could sweep all the accolades this season.
