Since the arrival of Frederic Vasseur to Ferrari, the veteran motorsport boss has been constantly trying his best to turn the Italian outfit back into a championship-contending outfit. While he has introduced several changes since taking over from Mattia Binotto, signing Lewis Hamilton is perhaps his biggest move yet.
The Frenchman went on an intensive poaching spree, trying to get the best talents from across the paddock. One of his recruits also happens to be ex-Mercedes man, Loic Serra, who left the Silver Arrows for Ferrari back in 2023. And following suit with his ex-Performance Director, Lewis Hamilton has also now decided to switch Brackley for Maranello.
| Loic Serra’s departure has played a key role in Hamilton’s decision.
Serra was the Head of Vehicle Performance at Mercedes before being poached by Ferrari for the 2025 season.
Both Serra and Hamilton were aligned with their concerns about the 2022-spec car.#F1 pic.twitter.com/62xXQfjpEA
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) February 1, 2024
When Vasseur took over the reins at Ferrari, the team were in dire straits. After a PU infringement in 2019, Ferrari fell into a massive slump in 2020 and 2021, owing to an underpowered engine and an aerodynamically draggy car.
In 2022, after showing great championship promise, the team withered under this pressure and eventually fell back. Although the team haven’t really challenged Red Bull for the title since Vasseur’s arrival in 2023, they were the only other team that won a Grand Prix last season other than the Milton Keynes outfit.
That being said, the arrival of Hamilton would be a great boost for the team. A senior driver like Hamilton, who has the expertise and experience of winning several championships in a row, could really help the team’s overall approach and developmental faculties for 2025 and beyond.
Was a lack of faith frustrating Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes?
Ferrari would be eager to pick Lewis Hamilton’s brains over how to develop their 2025 challenger. And perhaps it is this lack of faith that frustrated the 39-year-old at Mercedes. More often than not, he felt that the team were just discarding his inputs with how the W14 was being developed.
Hamilton told BBC’s Chequered Flag podcast last year (as quoted by Reuters), “Last year, there were things I told them. I said the issues that are with the car.”
However, the team reportedly did not pay heed to Hamilton’s words that resulted in the 39-year-old adding, “It’s about owning up and saying, ‘Yeah, you know what? We didn’t listen to you”.
Lewis Hamilton on the W14 pic.twitter.com/pN5FzBiusW
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) November 6, 2023
The W14 was indeed a difficult car to drive. As a result, Hamilton on more than one occasion publicly criticized the team for his driving woes.
Things once even got heated between Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton. After having enough of Hamilton’s constant bickering over the radio about how bad the W14 was to drive, Wolff came onto the radio and told the Briton, “The car is bad, we know that…. Please drive it”.
