Do you like to hear that at Mercedes? Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur has revealed that it was apparently easy to convince Lewis Hamilton to switch to Scuderia within Formula 1.
The Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi at the beginning of December was a historic one for Lewis Hamilton. The record world champion got into his Mercedes one last time and ended an era.
The Brit is joining Ferrari in the new year and wants to reach for his eighth title with the Reds.
The change, which was announced in spring 2024, made many headlines as it came as a surprise to almost everyone. Also for Mercedes.
Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur now gave insight into the exchange with Hamilton. The Frenchman apparently didn’t have to do much convincing.
“In 2023 we won more races than Mercedes, and the start of the season was also good, so it wasn’t too difficult to convince him that Ferrari would be a good project,” said Vasseur in a media round in Maranello, from Sky Sports ” quoted.
Vasseur: We talked about it with Hamilton over 20 years ago
“And I think he had the project of driving for Ferrari in his head for at least 22 or 23 years, because we talked about it back in 2004.”
Taken together, this meant “that it wasn’t too difficult,” summarized the team boss.
“I think sometimes it’s a matter of chance, or the alignment of all the planets, that it’s on the market and Ferrari has a space available, and so on,” said Vasseur.
But the contact was “easy”. “We started discussing a year ago and it wasn’t difficult to convince him.”
Hamilton developed into the dominator of Formula 1 with the Silver Arrows from 2013 and became a record world champion alongside Michael Schumacher with his seventh title. Since 2021, Hamilton and Mercedes have fallen out of the lead and behind.
Ferrari has been waiting for a world championship title since 2008 (then constructors’ world champion). Kimi Räikkönen last took the drivers’ title to Maranello in 2007.