With the brand new season lower than a month away, has instructed that his transfer to Ferrari is “the problem that I actually wanted” and that “the primary objective is to win.”
The seven-time drivers’ world champion despatched shockwaves via the game final 12 months when it was introduced he can be realizing his dream of driving within the iconic crimson of the Italian workforce, after spending 12 years at Mercedes.
However even he admits that he’s been stunned by the impression his arrival has had on the Italian outfit.
“Once I was making the choice, I knew it could be massive. Did I do know simply how massive? ‘How lengthy is a chunk of string?’” he tells CNN smiling. “It’s been essentially the most thrilling couple of months that I can keep in mind having.
“It’s been a giant, massive step and thrilling … Day-after-day’s been one thing fully new and the problem that I’m having is one thing that I actually wanted. I do know I’m precisely the place I’m meant to be proper this second.”
Iconic arrival
Hamilton’s transfer to Ferrari was solely his second swap between groups in his close to 20 years within the sport since his debut in 2007.
The arrival of one of many sport’s most iconic figures to Maranello despatched the world of Formulation One and Ferrari’s fanbase right into a spin.
In his first official day on the workforce, the 40-year-old posed for a sequence of pictures wearing a black swimsuit subsequent to a Ferrari F40 supercar with the enduring transformed farmhouse of the workforce’s founder, Enzo Ferrari, within the background.
The photograph, which was taken in the identical sq. named after with whom he sits stage on seven championship titles, is now essentially the most preferred F1 Instagram publish of all-time.
“I knew precisely what swimsuit I needed it and the way it appeared, and I selected the F40 as a result of that’s only a dream, iconic automotive,” he explains.
“To be in entrance of that constructing, the historical past inside all of the drivers, you see them take that photograph in entrance of it … I knew it could be a picture that will stand the check of time.”
Managing expectations
The prospect of bringing probably the most profitable drivers the game has ever needed to associate with an iconic racing model has raised hopes of the 40-year-old securing what can be a record-breaking eighth drivers’ championship title.
Though his final championship title got here in 2020, he completed his Mercedes marketing campaign on a excessive with two race wins in 2024 after two seasons with out victory.
However the competitors in 2025 will stay as powerful as ever with trying to proceed his domination with a fifth successive championship and McLaren’s Lando Norris a number one contender to dethrone the Dutchman.
So is Hamilton already permitting himself to dream of standing on the highest step of the rostrum within the crimson swimsuit of the Prancing Horse?
“Truthfully, I haven’t. I genuinely haven’t,” he says. “It’s a really, very steep studying curve, it’s a very new tradition.
“The automotive is totally completely different, and it behaves in a different way to what I’ve skilled, the engine, the management methods, the terminology used for all of the set-up, so every little thing is sort of a clean canvas and I’m making an attempt so as to add a few of my colours to the already nice mixture of colours that they’ve on this group.”
‘An influence that’s unmeasured’
Ferrari’s final driver’s title got here all the best way again in 2007 with Kimi Raikkonen’s victory and the outfit is and not using a constructors’ championship since 2008.
Though Hamilton’s associate at Ferrari, Charles LeClerc, completed a distant third within the driver standings, Ferrari pushed McLaren all the best way final season, ending a detailed second, simply 14 factors off the Woking-based workforce.
Hamilton, although, has already witnessed the important thing elements of satisfaction and fervour that might assist finish the workforce’s title drought.
“I knew that there’s ardour inside the workforce, however it’s not ‘til you’re truly within the workforce that you just see it,” he explains.
“I’ve seen and witnessed Ferrari drivers expertise it 12 months on 12 months on 12 months, however to truly be within the crimson swimsuit now and be on the receiving finish of it’s, ‘Wow’ … I’ve by no means seen something prefer it.
“This workforce has a hardcore fan base that may rally behind them it doesn’t matter what at anyplace, at any time. It’s one thing fairly unimaginable to see. Once you put you that collectively as a collective that’s an influence that’s unmeasured.”
‘Profitable is all I care about now’
And no person extra so than Hamilton is conscious of the ability of reaching an viewers inside and past the racing monitor.
Hamilton – the game’s first and solely Black world champion – has grown to grow to be its conscience, standing up in opposition to injustice and calling for extra to be carried out to deal with variety, illustration and inclusion in motorsport via his charity, Mission 44.
He has additionally unfold his wings into the sphere of style, tradition and music.
And whereas these tasks will proceed in earnest, full focus is now on the monitor. He received his first style of driving what he hopes will probably be a title difficult automotive, the SF-25 mannequin Ferrari, on the producer’s non-public racetrack in Italy this week.
Focus will then transfer to preseason testing which begins in Bahrain on February 26 with the opening race following quickly after in Melbourne on March 16.
“I’ve received an important rapport with Fred (Vasseur, Crew Principal) and the workforce,” he says
“They perceive and embrace the truth that I’m completely different and I’ve these different pursuits, however they’re underneath no phantasm and neither am I that the primary focus and the primary objective is to win on this workforce, and that’s all I care about proper now.”
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