There is a great deal of anticipation surrounding Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari, with the seven-time World Champion set to arrive in Maranello for his first appearance in red this week. Hamilton is also hyped and excited about the prospect of driving for the fabled Italian team and put up a post on LinkedIn to formalize the same. This was something Benedetto Vigna spoke about recently.
Hamilton‘s post was simple and to the point. But it created waves, simply because of the sentence, “Today I race for Scuderia Ferrari having formerly raced for Mercedes and McLaren.” But before this, he also wrote how he had been racing for over 30 years.
This reminded Vigna of an Italian journalist named Indro Montanelli, who at 85 years of age, started a newspaper named La Voce. Speaking to Corriere, Vigna said, “His post on LinkedIn reminded me a lot of Indro Montanelli who turned his whole life around at the age of eighty. I thought that was beautiful.”
LEWIS HAMILTON IS OFFICIALLY A FERRARI DRIVER pic.twitter.com/IjIWig7rdj
— Motorsport.com (@Motorsport) January 20, 2025
Hamilton isn’t 85 years old. Far from it. But in F1 years, being 40 is just as ancient on paper, in spite of which the Briton took a huge leap to join Ferrari, hoping to help them win a Championship for the first time since 2008, while also hoping to win his eighth title in the process.
At the same time, a lot of questions regarding his talent and ability at this age have come up.
Is age a concern for Hamilton?
What Hamilton feels personally, only he knows. But to the public, he — or even Ferrari — has never shown any concerns over being too old to compete at the highest level.
Yes, Hamilton’s last three seasons with Mercedes were rather underwhelming, with the Stevenage-born driver forced to become a midfield driver fighting for mere points in most races. However, that’s what drove him to change teams.
Hamilton has already achieved everything there is to in F1 barring one record: winning the most number of titles as a driver, for which he is level at the top with Michael Schumacher (7). He surely believes that Ferrari can help him achieve that, even at the age of 40.
Talent-wise, Hamilton has shown no dip in quality, barring a slump in qualifying results in 2024, which admittedly could be down to the Mercedes W15 — the worst car he has ever driven, in his words.
Everyone at Ferrari — and in the F1 community — is excited about his arrival at Maranello. “Lewis will learn from us and we will learn from him. It reminds me of dancing, because the most important thing is not to lose speed,” Vigna also said.
