Piero Ferrari has been waiting for this moment for a long time: Lewis Hamilton now drives in red. The son of Enzo Ferrari has been in contact with the record world champion of Formula 1 for years, as he has now revealed. And the entrepreneur already looks ahead of the internal team duel with Charles Leclerc.
When Lewis Hamilton publicly announced about a year ago that it would no longer want to drive for Mercedes, but for Ferrari in Formula 1 from 2025, the premier class was head. But the change had repeatedly emerged in the background, the right moment alone never really wanted to come.
Piero Ferrari, son of racing team founder Enzo, remembers in an interview with “Autosprint”: “Over the years we have talked and joy here and there. He has expressed his wish several times to run with us, but he was on Mercedes bound and we to our drivers. “
Then the moment finally came “when both Lewis and we saw the opportunity to take negotiations”. A little later the signature followed. He met Hamilton personally in 2014 when the Brit opened at Ferrari to buy a new racing car. Even then, he met the 40-year-old at dinner as an “extraordinary person”.
Despite his high racing driver age, Hamilton is still competitive, says Piero Ferrari: “He is physically and mentally fit, I don’t see age as a problem. He has accepted the challenge with great enthusiasm.”
“Rivalry will benefit both”
Hamilton also brings “enormous experience to Ferrari, he is a professional at the highest level and he knows how to win races,” said Ferrari.
Meanwhile, the team -internal duel is eagerly awaited with Charles Leclerc, who won three racing victories and 13 podium places last season. In the driver’s ranking, he took third place, while Hamilton stumbled in the Mercedes and became seventh.
There has always been a certain rivalry between teammates, Piero Ferrari looks relaxed at the coming season: “That is part of the game.”
Basically, the duel between the 27-year-old Leclerc and the old master Hamilton is the duel between the “youthful freshness” and the “experience”, according to the Italian: “I am sure that the rivalry between Hamilton and Leclerc will benefit both of them. “