The most successful driver of all time is moving to one of Formula 1’s most evocative teams – on paper, a highly auspicious partnership. Lewis Hamilton describes it as the fruition of a childhood dream. But challenges lie in the nuance: the clock is ticking on Hamilton’s career and Ferrari hasn’t won a constructors’ title since 2008. What does each party want – need – from this arrangement?
WORDS ANDREW BENSON PICTURES
Frédéric Vasseur is an unlikely paradigm breaker at first glance. The Ferrari team principal’s somewhat grumpy resting facial expression soon gives way to a twinkling eye and a ready laugh; he’s Formula 1’s equivalent of Albert Le Blanc, the children’s story about the saddest-looking bear the other toys have ever seen who turns out to be a big roly-poly bundle of joy.
But Vasseur has steel beneath the warm, avuncular exterior. It has not always been apparent in his eight years in F1, managing the Renault, Sauber/Alfa Romeo and now Ferrari teams. But it certainly is now. The 55-year-old Frenchman is the key that unlocked the biggest driver move in F1 for a decade; perhaps even ever – Lewis Hamilton’s decision to leave Mercedes and join Ferrari for 2025.
When Vasseur was asked what it was like delivering the bad news to Carlos Sainz, who is now looking for a drive for next season, he said wryly: “It was not the easiest call of my life. But the one that was most difficult was the one with Toto.” Vasseur and his opposite number at Mercedes are very close friends, who go back a long way.
Hamilton won with Vasseur’s team in both Formula 3 and GP2 before he graduated to F1, and the experience clearly made an impression. “We stayed in touch,” Hamilton said. “I thought he was going to be an amazing team manager at some stage and progress to F1, and it was really cool to see him step into the Alfa team. And when he got the job at Ferrari, I was just so happy for him. It really wouldn’t have happened without him.”
This is seismic stuff. The most successful driver in F1 history joining the sport’s most storied team, both parties in the quest to return to the top.
Why Lewis lost faith with Mercedes
Hamilton wants to avenge what he perceives to be the injustice of Abu Dhabi 2021, when his eighth world title was snatched away from him as a direct result of race director Michael Masi’s decision to make up the rules as he went along in a late-race Safety Car period. Ferrari’s aim is to win a world championship for the first time since 200
