Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
When Lewis Hamilton falls asleep at night, the dream fairy taunts him with visions of him leading Formula One’s iconic team in a return to glory. The Italian squad are the oldest of all the teams and the only one to have raced since the first round of the inaugural FIA F1 world championship in 1950.
Yet Ferrari’s history is a mixed one. Yes they are the most successfully F1 team with their 16 constructors titles and 15 drivers’ championships, of which five came from probably their most famous pilot Michael Schumacher.
Prior to Schumacher’s title win in the year 2000, the previous driver for the Scuderia to have claimed the championship was Jodi Scheckter back in 1979. 21 years of a long wait for Ferrari even though in the constructors’ title race the gap was just 16 years. The patience of the tifosi was wearing thin, then came Michael Schumacher.
Can Hamilton be the next Schumacher?
Ferrari are now suffering their second longest run without claiming glory at the end of a season, its been 19 years since Kimi Raikkonen stole the title from under the noses of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton by just one point. The team won the constructors’ championship the following year, which coincided with Hamilton]s maiden title.
Of course when Schumacher joined Ferrari in 1996, there was a huge rebuild programme being embarked upon. And but for a broken leg at the British Grand Prix in ’99, the German ace ,may well have claimed eight F1 drivers’ championships. Now the Maranello based team are facing their second longest period in the F1 wilderness and given the start they’ve had to this season, the drought looks as though it will extend to yet another year.
Hamilton was an emotional signing by Ferrari group president John Elkann, with Fred Vasseur saying a few weeks earlier he was happy with the Sainz/Leclerc lineup to continue. There was little evidence since the arrival of the ground effect cars in 2022, that Lewis could drive the new machines which derive around 50% of their downforce from underneath the car. Merely switching teams to find the proverbial “reset” was never going to be the solution for the British driver. Yet given the writing was on the wall over his Mercedes future Hamilton decided it was better to jump than wait to be pushed.
Ferrari have been way off the pace and find themselves after a quarter of the 2025 season a whopping 110 points behind leaders McLaren. In a strange kind of way this suits Lewis Hamilton, given the pressure he would be under should he find himself a genuine title contender in his first year for the Scuderia.
