Lewis Hamilton said there was “magic” in the Ferrari that can help him make the story of Formula 1.
Hamilton’s move to the team, a story that began last February, when he announced that he would leave Mercedes in late 2024, dominated the accumulation of the new season. Australia will host the first race on March 16, for the first time since 2019.
“I have worked with two teams that have won the World Championship and I know what it looks like and feels a victorious team,” Hamilton said. He won the first of his seven titles with McLaren in 2008 and the other six with Mercedes. No driver has won eight.
“Everyone here at Ferrari has the passion like nothing you’ve ever seen. They have absolutely every ingredient they need to win a world championship. It’s about putting everyone together.”
Ferrari had no driver champion by Kimi Raikkonen in 2007. The last title of his manufacturers was 17 years ago. The team lost last year when it was hit by McLaren by 14 points.
Zak Brown, chief executive of McLaren Racing, said he was “certainly waiting” that Hamilton would be a “championship candidate”.
Christian Horner, head of the Red Bull team, agreed.
“If he starts a good start, he takes the team behind him. He finds his trust and comes out of this action, then I can see him become a real candidate,” Horner said.
“But so much will depend on how it takes with the team at the beginning of the season. We all know what Lewis is capable and if reactivated in a different environment, it could absolutely be a real factor.”
Hamilton holds the record for driver titles with Michael Schumacher, who won five of his seven with Ferrari. In an eighth, Hamilton said: “For me, it would be the first. The victory of the championship for Ferrari is the first. That’s what I work. I don’t think eight.
“I think of the first championship that the team didn’t win for some time, though they already had a lot about their history. For me, he is looking for this first with the team, and now it’s about how I can contribute to it, how I can help them achieve this.”
The season could be one of the most competitive. New aerodynamic rules were introduced in 2022 designed to do closer races, only for Red Bull and Max Verstappen to dominate that year and 2023.
Although Verstappen won the driver’s title again last year for his fourth consecutive, he didn’t have it all his way and Red Bull was abolished as a manufacturers champion. Seven drivers from four teams won the Grands Prix, most since 2012.
With more convergence expected this season in the last year of regulations before a significant change next year, Verstappen is awaiting close matches.
“That’s why the rules were set so,” he said. “I hope it is exciting and we have many different winners, teams as well. This would be great for the sport.”
Hamilton said “he will be close to the top”. He is another English guide, McLaren’s Lando Norris, who is one of my favorite.
Last year, Norris and his teammate, Oscar Piasstri, helped McLaren win his first manufacturers’ title since 1998. Norris won four Grands Prix and finished second in the drivers behind Verstappen.
“A new challenge for everyone in the team this year is to face this success,” Norris said. “They’re just happy. They think they’ve done it and they’re complacent. Or do they want more? Hopefully it’s the second much more than the first one.
“The mentality is that we want to start well from the off. This is a great thing for us because we haven’t done it. We haven’t started as a favorite. So the mentality is to continue since last year, which is the right mindset, the mentality we need and we are on the right track.”
Norris finished 63 points behind Verstappen, who won four of the first five Grands Prix. After changes to the McLaren car, Norris won the Miami Grand Prix and then three other Grands Prix, moving it to a dispute.
“I feel we are still underdog in some ways, compared to the race between Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes, but we have proven that we have everything we need and the team has done a great job to continue to push, improve what we had,” Norris said.
“We don’t expect it to be easier this season, only harder, but the team is trying to make it as easy as I and Oscar when we get on track.”
Norris may wait to be pushed by Piasstri, who won two matches last year. Late last season, to help Norris’s challenge to Verstappen, McLaren made him his No. 1 driver, regularly favoring him when possible.
This year there is a clean plate and Piasstri wants to benefit.
“I want to win the World Championships this year,” Piasstri said. “Let’s hope we have a car that can do it from the beginning. Of course, everyone will have this mentality.
“But we will be able to fight each other. We have shown again and again that we can fight each other hard but clearly, and as long as we do not get points from the team, then we will go to fight.”
To become a champion, Norris and Piasstri will have to prevail in the wheeling with a wheel with Verstappen. It is an area in which Norris said it did not fall well in cases last year and that it had to improve.
“I can fortunately admit that there were a few things where I just didn’t do a good job,” Norris said. “I wasn’t enough at the level I had to be to fight against Max, but then we’re talking about going up against one of the toughest aggressive defense guys.”
Verstappen has an easier life in Red Bull. He is the No. 1 driver, with a new teammate, Liam Lawson of New Zealand.
After competing in 11 Grands Prix in the last two seasons for Red Bull’s sister team, Alphatauri was later renamed RB, Lawson replaced Sergio Pérez.
“Liam’s job is clear,” Horner said. “He’s there to try to provide as much support as he can. There is no expectation for him to come out and beat a quadruple world champion,” referring to Verstappen. “If he does, fantastic.”
“Being Max’s teammate is perhaps the toughest place in Formula 1. We will do our best to protect and develop him. He only has 11 Grands Prix under his belt, so he is a big question, but he has the ability, talent and spiritual power to face it.”
Although it is Lawson’s full -time debut in Formula 1, he said he did not consider himself a rookie. There are five in the grid, Haas’s Oliver Bearman, Stake’s Gabriel Bortoleto, Alpine’s Jack Doohan, Isck Hadjar of the Games and Andrea Antonelli of Mercedes.
The biggest spotlight is in Antonelli, who is also known as Kimi and is Hamilton’s replacement – a word Antonelli does not like it. “I can’t find it right,” he said. “He has done so much in the sport. I just feel like I’m the next Mercedes driver.”
Bearman, a lower driver with Ferrari, made his debut in Saudi Arabia last year when he led to Carlos Sainz, who needed an appendectomy. Bearman also led to two Grands Prix for Haas, replacing Kevin Magnussen.
If Bearman performs the next two years with Haas, he could replace Hamilton. It’s not something she thinks.
“My main goals for the time are to learn as much as I can, to build from race to race, have a lot of discipline and work hard,” Bearman said.
“The most important thing that is easily overlooked, you only get a champion season, and I really want to enjoy it. I live my dream and I am very lucky to be here.”
Hamilton also wants to enjoy his debut with Ferrari. Before a wheel returns, he knows he is in the right place to win an eighth title.
“The energy I get from the team is magic here,” he said. “It will still need a lot of hard work.
“But it is also for faith, and every person here dreams of winning a title with Ferrari.”
