Where could it go wrong for Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari? We ask the insiders
Enjoy your honeymoon, Lewis. Reality will bite very soon
When Ferrari’s new SF-25 Formula 1 car hit the track for the first time at Fiorano in February a clip went viral of a Ferrari fan cutting down a tree because it had been spoiling his view. You don’t get that at Silverstone. As Lewis Hamilton has surely discovered by now, nothing about driving for Ferrari is quite the same – or, for that matter, as sane – as life at other F1 teams.
It’s clear he felt the full power of that old red magic from the moment he rolled out of the famous Shell garage for his first Ferrari run back in January, in a two-year-old F1 car. The fans had gathered en masse for that occasion too, just as they always used to on such days – just as they always will.
‘I’ve been lucky enough to have many firsts in my career, from the first test to the first race, podium, win and championship, so I wasn’t sure how many more I would have,’ said Hamilton afterwards. ‘But driving a Ferrari for the first time this morning was one of the best feelings of my life.’
He’s savoured what’s surely the ultimate for any racing driver: the honeymoon period of becoming an F1 driver for the most illustrious car maker in the world. But as that initial buzz wears off, what will be the reality of Hamilton’s stint at Ferrari? What’s he in for, and how will he handle it on the days when the sparkle goes missing?
‘You can leave Ferrari, it seems, but it never leaves you’
Hamilton with Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc
‘I used to say driving for Ferrari is nearly as good as winning a world championship,’ says Jody Scheckter, the South African who achieved in 1979 what Hamilton would love to pull off in 2025: winning a title for Ferrari at the first time of asking. Jody was 29 when he joined Ferrari back then. Hamilton is attempting the same at 40.
‘Working for Ferrari is so unbelievable,’ says Joan Villadelprat, a Spaniard who for three years at the end of the 1980s became the F1 team’s first non-Italian chief mechanic. ‘For example, Ferrari has owners’ clubs all round the world. Every single race I went to I had to go to dinners with these clubs, in Montreal, Adelaide, wherever we went. Without a doubt it is different to any other team. I suppose now it works more like an English team, the way of approaching the work at the circuit. But the consequence of working at Ferrari is unique. Nothing can compare.’
Rob Smedley is the British engineer best known as the Teeside-accented voice in Felipe Massa’s ear. His stint at Ferrari lasted 10 years, between 2004 and ’14, and the bond he formed with Italy and the great team remains strong. You can leave Ferrari, it seems, but it never leaves you. ‘For the critical mass of staff at Ferrari it’s their life-long ambition to work there,’ says Smedley, who today runs the FAT Karting League, an electric-powered initiative to unearth new racing talent and improve diversity in motorsport. ‘That passion and enthusiasm is constantly there, and it’s very different culturally to a British team. In British teams, especially if you are not at the front of the grid, there’s some cynicism which doesn’t always create great teamwork, great synergies. With Ferrari there’s almost this innocence about the culture that they feel there’s always a possibility, whether it’s this year or next year, that they can win. That’s very refreshing, to work with a bunch of people who are so enthusiastic.’
Ferrari’s SF-25 has been causing quite a stir…
Hamilton will have so much coming at him in the weeks and months to come – not least the challenge of dealing with a young, fast team-mate. Scheckter knows all about that. In the early months of his first season Gilles Villeneuve blew him away. The odds of an echo in 2025 via Charles Leclerc, 13 years Hamilton’s junior and considered by many the fastest of the current generation over one lap, might well be short.
‘It makes you pull out another level,’ Jody recalls. He felt the balance of power shift when Villeneuve won races three and four of the 1979 season. ‘I was the number one driver in contract. In reality he was becoming number one. So I just had to knuckle down and do better, which I did in the end. It took everything, and everything more.’
Scheckter won back-to-back at Zolder and Monaco to take the points lead, scored consistently through the summer and clinched the title with two rounds to spare, leading Villeneuve to a Ferrari 1-2 at Monza. Hamilton can only dream.
But might he win first time out for Ferrari, when the F1 season kicks off in Australia on 16 March? Seven Ferrari drivers have managed the feat before him, one of them being Nigel Mansell, who took the most unlikely of victories, 20 years after Scheckter’s title, in Rio in 1989. Villadelprat was Mansell’s chief mechanic that day. He recalls Mansell’s doubts about John Barnard’s stunning but revolutionary Ferrari 640, the first F1 car driven through a semi-automatic gearbox, with steering-wheel paddles for the changes – sensational then, but common on our road cars today.
‘It was the best car ever designed by John Barnard,’ reckons Villadelprat. ‘But in testing it was not reliable. Anyway, Mansell arrived. He was an old-fashioned man: “Where’s the gearlever? I don’t want to drive like that.” He drove at Fiorano – and after 10 or 15 laps he said “This is brilliant!”‘
‘What Hamilton is less likely to face is the chaos of Ferrari’s infamous internal politics’
But in Rio Mansell was so sure his Ferrari debut wouldn’t last long he tried to book an early flight home via a British Airways captain he met on the grid… Yet less than two hours later, there he was, taking the chequered flag ahead of Alain Prost’s McLaren. Villadelprat drew blood to get that svelte 640 across the line. Mid-race we had a radio call from Mansell: “The steering is gone, the steering wheel is moving!” he says. “Okay, come in, come in.” John Barnard and myself, we decided to change the steering wheel. John took the old wheel, I put the new one on, pushed it with my hand and Mansell went out and won the race. When he left the pitlane I felt wetness in my glove: the radio switch was caught in my skin. I hadn’t even felt it.’
What Hamilton is less likely to face is the chaos of Ferrari’s infamous internal politics. He signed largely because of Frédéric Vasseur, who for the past two years has brought a calm authority back to Ferrari in a manner last seen during the Michael Schumacher era, when Jean Todt and Ross Brawn protected the F1 team from the caustic friction that traditionally undermines life at Maranello. Vasseur is an old friend who ran Hamilton in Formula 3 and GP2, and their iron-clad relationship will be crucial if the seven-time champion is to thrive at Ferrari.
Smedley says politics is a part of life at Ferrari. Hamilton won’t be able to avoid it completely, despite the protection Vasseur will offer. ‘There’s a Latin temperament and when you add all the Ferrari cultural ingredients politics becomes almost inevitable,’ he says. ‘The trick is not to get sucked down into it. If you want to survive you have to understand how things work, how things get done and what you want to get done. You have to operate within that system. I was highly cognisant of it.’
Politics was certainly a factor during Villadelprat’s spell in Italy, which coincided with Enzo Ferrari’s death in August 1988. Enzo used to call him Capitano, Villadelprat says. These were turbulent times, amid a power struggle involving Ferrari’s son, then known as Piero Lardi, and executives from Fiat as the car manufacturer’s control increased over the jewel it had owned a stake in since 1969. ‘For Lewis, the politics is less now because you only have one boss – Vasseur,’ points out Villadelprat. ‘But now the politics has moved: it will be between the drivers, and Leclerc is very political. He’s well integrated inside Ferrari and it puts him in a very strong position. He speaks Italian perfectly too.’
The language barrier is a moot point. Hamilton has openly admitted he doesn’t speak the lingo, but then again, neither does Vasseur. Neither did Scheckter, for that matter – and he still doesn’t, even though officially he’s an Italian resident today. ‘Old Man Ferrari loved Gilles, he spoke the language and I didn’t,’ says Scheckter, ‘but I never felt out of it. I had Brenda Vernor’ – Enzo’s British-born private secretary and a key figure in Ferrari folklore. ‘After every practice and race I’d write my comments to Brenda and she would then give them to Old Man Ferrari. I always felt good being there.’
Hamilton and Leclerc posing with team principal Frédéric Vasseur
Smedley, in contrast, reckons the language factor will be essential. He learnt ‘on the job’, picking up a local accent he compares to Danish 1980s football legend Jan Molby speaking English as a Scouser during his spell with Liverpool. ‘My attitude was I had to lean much more towards them regardless of what I was bringing to the table,’ says Smedley. ‘I had to imbed myself into that culture, so for me speaking Italian was essential. And it meant I could do my job well, to engage with everybody within the team. Also it showed them I was as dedicated to their brand as they were, despite coming in as a Brit outsider.’
Villadelprat agrees, up to a point: ‘I hope he learns Italian, but doesn’t read the press!’ Ah, the Italian media: the viper whose bite remains as venomous as it ever was. ‘Talk to your mechanics, get integrated with the team and say something to the public when you do a press release – but don’t talk to the press,’ advises Joan. ‘Don’t even look at them!’
Scheckter chuckles about his relationship with journalists and takes some pride in his status as a three-time consecutive winner of the ‘lemon prize’ – for being the most difficult F1 driver to deal with. ‘At least I went to fetch my prize, so it wasn’t too bad,’ he says with a smile. ‘I always said to everybody in the team, let’s stick together, don’t listen to the stuff that they write. I think guys before me worried more. People like [Carlos] Reutemann. But we stuck together and it didn’t bother me what they said.’
Then again, imagine outspoken Scheckter in F1 today with social media waiting to pour scorn and castigation. It would probably be unfair to say Hamilton faces more pressure than his predecessors, but the nature of modern communication and the toxicity in tone – direct from the public more than the media – is harder to insulate against. Then again, Hamilton has been F1’s most famous driver since 2007.
‘They’ll get through this honeymoon period and like any relationship it will have its bumps’
‘For me, I always kept the mania in perspective,’ says Scheckter. ‘When people were jumping at me for an autograph, I knew the next year they’d be stamping on my body going to the next guy. Lewis is so popular now he’s on a different planet.’
So predictions: how will Hamilton fare at Ferrari? ‘George Russell outperformed him at Mercedes last year,’ says Scheckter. ‘You can’t stay good for the rest of your life. Lewis has been fantastic, probably the best of all time. Schumacher had the same result [in terms of world championships], but he tended to be dirty in his racing. Lewis has always raced clean. But at 40? People are different. I got bored and retired early, then changed careers. Lewis still seems to be enthusiastic and is in a good place personally, although that isn’t always good for performance.’
Villadelprat is more emphatic. ‘If the car is good Hamilton will beat Leclerc and win the championship,’ he states. ‘If the car is not so good Leclerc will beat Hamilton. Simple. Hamilton has got too many things in life to think about, has a lot of money, has seven championships, so he’s not going to risk his life to gain one more position. I saw it in all the F1 champions I knew: when the car is good you see the real driver.’
Smedley goes further, and is convinced what he describes as a ‘match made in heaven’ is already firing on all cylinders. ‘They’ll get through this honeymoon period and like any relationship it will have its bumps,’ says Smedley. ‘But if you trust each other enough you get through it. What Lewis brings is that extra one or two per cent of motivation they need to start winning world championships.
‘If you look at the last few years Ferrari have been no slouches, and since Fred has walked in the door he has done a great job of getting them organised, of calming the whole thing down, of being that protector. Now you see Ferrari are in a good state. Lewis brings that motivation, that extra tiny attention to detail that makes all the difference. The championship? I’d love to see it happen.’