Lewis Hamilton will link up with his former ART team boss in Fred Vasseur at Ferrari in 2025.
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur explained the team will not be changing its approach to account for the arrival of Lewis Hamilton in 2025, despite his enormous success in the sport.
Vasseur previously worked with Hamilton on his way through the junior ranks, with Hamilton now set to reunite with his former ART Grand Prix boss as a seven-time World Champion at Ferrari in 2025.
Ferrari won’t ‘change the approach’ ahead of Lewis Hamilton arrival
Vasseur acknowledged Hamilton’s experience and success will bring with it his own way of having navigated his Formula 1 career, but with a tight turnaround before the Australian Grand Prix in March, the team principal said there will not be much time for emotion as he gets up to speed at Ferrari.
Hamilton’s contract begins in the new year and he looks set to take in testing as a Ferrari driver before the 10-car season launch in London in February, which will be followed a day after by Ferrari’s own official car launch, with pre-season testing in Bahrain coming a week later.
While there is still plenty of time on paper until next season starts, the team principal added that will distil down to approximately one month for the seven-time World Champion to get to grips with his new surroundings.
“It’s not because it’s Lewis that we have to do differently, he will come with his own experience, with his own background, but we don’t have to change the approach,” Vasseur explained to Sky F1.
“I’m sure that Lewis understands this perfectly, and we’ll have the first test days with TPC [testing of previous cars, ed.] and Pirelli and then the launch of the car, the launch of the championship, and then we’ll go directly to Bahrain, and it will be a tough sequence until Melbourne.
“But it’s true that it’s a short preparation, and because [of] that, we have something like four weeks at the factory before the first event. But it is like it is.”
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Put to the team principal that it will be an emotional moment for the seven-time World Champion to drive a Ferrari for the first time in Formula 1, Vasseur joked he will allow him to be emotional for a brief period before it’s down to the business of trying to be quick.
“Yeah, it’s true that it’s quite emotional, because I think he has this moment in his mind for probably 20 years,” he said.
“It means that it will be emotional, but it has to be emotional for one lap!” He added with a laugh and clapping one hand to the other: “And then, to be focussed.
“You know that every single team is different for sure, but we are all chasing the same goal with the same approach.
“What is a bit different is the passion or the emotion around the team, but I think Lewis is well prepared to manage this. I think it’s much easier to arrive somewhere when the passion is at the top than the opposite. I’m not worried at all.”
Ferrari has long been fabled as Italy’s ‘national team’ as well as the oldest and most storied constructor in Formula 1, and with that brings a unique pressure from around the world.
When asked if that will play a part next season, Vasseur brought it back to on-track matters – explaining that Hamilton’s experience fighting at the front of the field for so long will ultimately help the Scuderia in their battle to bring a first title back to Maranello since the 2008 Constructors’ crown.
“We are in the situation that we are fighting for details that average on the grid, the car in front of us is three hundredths of a second faster,” he explained.
“At the end [of 2024], you are fighting for 14 points in the championship. It’s one DNF from the season, or it’s one strategic decision, or whatever – it means that every single detail will make the difference.
“And Lewis is coming with a huge experience, a huge experience of championships, of the background from Mercedes, or, let’s say, certitude on himself, snd this will help the team to continue to grow up and to improve step by step.”
