Ferrari, Hamilton and F1 in 2025

January 20th, 2025, Fiorano, Italy.    

At the place where Ferrari was thought of, a dream, executed with merciless determination, stood the only driver who could match the scarlet red.  

It was here, F1’s most successful partnership. The most successful driver, the most successful team. A move known publicly for over a year, but hidden for so much longer, worked on, carefully, until Fred Vasseur had his man. 

The prancing pony had done what no one thought possible. Lewis Hamilton stood on the doorstep of Enzo Ferrari’s house, seven windows and a door shown in the photograph the Scuderia shared to its social media, reflecting the achievements Lewis made in silver, and showing what all of Italy hopes he can achieve in red. 

“There are some days that you know you’ll remember forever and today, my first as a Ferrari driver, is one of those days,” Hamilton posted on his Instagram.  

“I’ve been lucky enough to have achieved things in my career I never thought possible, but part of me has always held on to that dream of racing in red. I couldn’t be happier to realise that dream today.”

“Today we start a new era in the history of this iconic team, and I can’t wait to see what story we will write together.”

Hamilton is right, January 20th would indeed be written into the history book of Formula One, but it also meant that another chapter would be coming to a close. 

In 2013, Hamilton joined Mercedes, and he did so at a large risk. Hamilton was at McLaren from 2007-2012, during which time won the 2008 World Championship with the MP4-23.

During his final season with Woking based team, they finished third. Meanwhile, Mercedes had finished fifth. When Michael Schumacher retired from racing, Hamilton’s head was turned by the silver arrow, and he partnered Nico Rosberg to start his time with Mercedes. 

2013 was a lean year for Mercedes, however when 2014 brought the start of the turbo hybrid era, everything changed. Over the course of the next 11 years, Hamilton won six drivers titles, (2014, 2015, 2017-2020), while Mercedes won eight constructors championships (2014-2021) as they crushed the opposition race after race.  

In the year since the news of Hamilton joining Ferrari become public, the Englishman has admitted that a little part of him always dreamed of racing in red. Hamilton went so far to say that his childhood dream was to drive for the Italian automaker, and that thought was always there, even during the successful times with Mercedes;

"I think for every driver, I think growing up, watching the history, watching Michael Schumacher in his prime, I think probably all of us sit in our garage and see the screen pop up, and you see the driver in the red cockpit, and you wonder what it might be like to be surrounded by the red," Hamilton said via Instagram in February of 2024. 

"You go to the Italian Grand Prix, and you see the sea of red of Ferrari fans, and you can only stand in awe of that.

"It's a team that's not had huge success really since, mostly obviously from Michael's days, but obviously since 2007, [the year of Ferrari’s last driver’s championship, won by Kimi Raikkonen] and I saw it as a huge challenge.

"Without a doubt, even as a kid, I used to play on Grand Prix 2 [a racing game] as Michael in that car.

"So it definitely is a dream, and I'm really, really excited about it."  

Hamilton, matched only in world championships by Michael Schumacher, will be hunting for an eighth world title in 2025. 

There is a simple question: Can it work? With Hamilton’s godlike ability and the Ferrari project on an upward trajectory, can they catch McLaren and Max Verstappen?

The Ferrari in 2024 was capable of winning races in the hands of both Carlos Sainz, and Hamilton’s 2025 teammate, Charles Leclerc. 

While not confirmed, the Ferrari is undergoing some massive changes in the front of the car. Ferrari will follow the examples of several teams and change from a push-rod to a pull-rod front suspension. 

While both the pull-rod and the push-rod have their own advantages, the change will allow Ferrari to have greater control of their ride height and the cars responsiveness from the front of the vehicle.  

More importantly, the two fastest cars of last year, McLaren and Red Bull, both used pull-rod front suspension. 

However, Hamilton has always been a fan of a stable rear end. It is something that the Mercedes has not been able to give him for a number of years now, and unlike most teams, Ferrari use a pull-rod rear suspension.

A pull-rod rear suspension improves the overall weight distribution and allows for a cooling system that gives the aerodynamics more freedom at the lower sides of the car. Both of these factors tend to learn toward a stable rear-ended car.   

Most importantly, the Ferrari car has brakes that are very similar to the Mercedes of old, and the car has been designed with Lewis’ preferences in mind. 

On paper, it appears that the stars will align for Hamilton and Ferrari, but races aren’t won on paper, and the pony will have to prance on the track in 2025.