The shock announcement in February 2024 that Hamilton would leave his longtime home of Mercedes-Benz, the place where he won the majority of his championships but which had lately been riddled with performance issues, overshadowed much of the following season.
The excitement around these two incredibly powerful entities in motorsport has unleashed a flurry of excitement and speculation. Both team and driver are seeking to revitalize themselves: Hamilton has languished in the midfield with Mercedes since he lost the championship to Max Verstappen in 2021. Meanwhile, despite a handful of Grand Prix wins in recent years, the Scuderia is still far from catching its rivals, Red Bull and McLaren, and breaking its long winless streak in the championship. Can Ferrari guarantee Hamilton a record-breaking seventh title in the World Drivers' Championship? Can the great driver lead the legendary, yet beleaguered team to its first championship since 2008? And why exactly is this partnership so significant?
"Do Your Talking on the Track"
Hamilton may be the most accomplished driver in F1 history, but his success was far from guaranteed. In a sport dominated by white, wealthy Europeans, he remains the first and only black athlete to ever gain a profile in the elite (and elitist) competition. In both grade school and at karting events, he suffered racist bullying from other kids, even taking up karate to defend himself. Yet he found encouragement from his father, Anthony, his manager until 2010, who sometimes worked up to four jobs to support his early career. "My dad always said, 'Do your talking on the track,' so from day one I always did my talking on the track," Hamilton has said. "Let your results speak louder than anything you have to say," his dad would add. "You don’t have to say anything to these people."The results spoke loudly from an early age, and when Hamilton was ten years old, he became the youngest-ever driver to win the British cadet karting championship. He signed with McLaren's driver development program and rose through the racing ranks, finally debuting for the team in 2007 opposite Fernando Alonso. A record-setting debut season saw him surpass his championship-winning teammate but fall short of Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen for the title. The next year, he took it for himself, the first of a record seven total World Drivers' Championships.
Hamilton won his first and last championship for McLaren in 2008. In 2013, he gambled on the then-still-green Mercedes team, partnering with old karting mate Nico Rosberg. For the next three years, the two dueled on the track and feuded off of it as they fought for dominance. After conceding two consecutive championships to Hamilton in 2014 and 2015, Rosberg finally prevailed in 2016 after a controversial final race before retiring from the sport.
With his rival out of the way, Hamilton embarked on the most dominant run by a driver in F1 history, bringing Mercedes four titles in a row from 2017 to 2020 and equaling Michael Schumacher's record of seven career championships. The dynasty toppled in 2021 under dramatic circumstances as he attempted to fend off rising star Max Verstappen at Red Bull. Amplified by the sport's growing post-pandemic popularity, with Netflix's Drive to Survive docuseries courting new fans around the world, the two engaged in the most riveting title fight seen in years, culminating in a literal last-minute fight to the finish at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. After going into the race dead even on points, Verstappen emerged victorious, though some argued it was handed to him thanks to a controversial decision from the stewards.
Hamilton stayed at Mercedes for three more lackluster years before announcing his move to Ferrari. He's still on the lookout for that record-shattering eighth title, but the 40-year-old driver doesn't have much left to prove. He is indisputably the winningest driver in Formula 1 history, and his success in the sport as someone who defied barriers to excel in a hostile environment has indisputably broadened its appeal.
"Second Place Is First Loser"
Just as a finely-bred race horse needs a talented jockey to take advantage of its pedigree, so does the oldest and most successful team on the grid need the best drivers in the world to ride their cars to victory. And just as every young soccer player dreams of playing for Real Madrid or Barcelona, so does Scuderia Ferrari occupy an even greater position in the minds of every Formula 1 driver. Everyone wants to ride il Cavallino Rampante, the Prancing Pony. The team's history dates back to before F1 was even established. Founded in 1929 by former driver Enzo Ferrari, the Scuderia (Italian for "stable") initially raced cars built by Alfa Romeo before building their own. Since F1 was established in 1950, the team has won 22.5 percent of all races — a full fifth of the total victories in the sport belong to them. Legendary drivers have won the championship in their cars, including Juan Manuel Fangio, Niki Lauda, Räikkönen, and, greatest of all, Schumacher, who drove the Scuderia to a dynasty of five consecutive trophies from 2000 to 2004.
The team has also found success in endurance racing, winning the World Sportscar Championship 12 times and its flagship race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, nine times. It also conquered the infamous Mille Miglia race eight times before a horrific crash in the 1957 edition killed eleven people, including Ferrari driver Alfonso de Portago. The incident is dramatized in Michael Mann's 2023 film Ferrari.
Indeed, beyond the victories, Ferrari is a magnet for both adoration and controversy. Enzo was famous for his ruthless attitude toward his drivers, holding the cutthroat philosophy "Second place is first loser." Eight drivers, including de Portago, died under his watch in the deadly early days of motor racing, and the team has weathered other scandals in the years since. Even so, it remains the most passionately supported team in motorsports, backed by an army of demanding fans known as the tifosi. Ferrari is a symbol of the Italian nation itself, the red color of its cars derived from the rosso corsa Italian racing red. Beyond motorsport, it's an iconic global brand, from the consumer sports cars that have dominated Hollywood movies and TV (remember James Crockett's white Ferrari on Miami Vice?) to recent forays into designer fashion and lifestyle products.
An Adjustment Period
Announcing his move early last year meant Hamilton's divorce from Mercedes would be a long one. Conversely, he hasn't had much of a honeymoon with Ferrari. The season opened with a rainy mess of an Australian Grand Prix that resulted in five car retirements and one racer, Isack Hadjar of the Red Bull B-team Racing Bulls, crashing out on the way to the starting line. After qualifying P8, Hamilton finished tenth, still in the points but certainly not up to his usual standard and below his teammate Charles LeClerc in eighth. That bad luck would be repeated the following weekend at the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai. After a barnstorming sprint race victory in which Hamilton won for Ferrari for the first time, the driver clashed with LeClerc during the race, causing damage to the latter's car. He finished in sixth, which would have been an improvement, except the FIA shockingly disqualified both Ferraris — Hamilton for excessive plank wear and LeClerc for his car's failure to meet weight requirements.
The team bounced back slightly at the Japanese Grand Prix, held earlier this month at the famed Suzuka International Racing Course. As Verstappen sailed away with the win, Hamilton settled for P7 after qualifying in P8, and LeClerc finished just shy of the podium in P4. Hamilton finished fifth in Bahrain but fell back again in Saudi Arabia. It's not uncommon for drivers to go through an adjustment period at a new team before finding their footing and competing for trophies, and while Hamilton may not be winning quite yet, his consistent top-10 finishes show he's in a good position to improve as the team improves the car. As the season continues on to Miami, this is only the beginning for these two championship contenders.
Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix. Sunday, May 4, at Miami International Autodrome (Hard Rock Stadium), 347 Don Shula Dr., Miami Gardens; f1miamigp.com. Tickets cost $65 to $6,000 via f1miamigp.com.
