The shock is that Ferrari would bet their future hopes on it instead of investing in a young upcoming talent like Ollie. If the Scuderia could have gotten Lewis five or so years ago it would be a completely different story IMO.
Out of a dominant car he doesn't look so dominant. Hamilton and Ferrari are both seeking the same thing--not necessarily success in F1 but $$$$. That's what this move is all about.
I think Elkann is all about the publicity and the brand. Unfortunately, winning isn’t necessarily part of that.
What part of "winning 7 titles isn't easy" are you failing to comprehend? Or the direct quote above it "Lewis WAS a great driver"? Et tu jimboy, et tu.
^^^ And now for the entire quote: "Lewis was a great driver when the car is great" (a back handed compliment if ever there was one, and a rather silly one at that) And it's not you writing that, it was someone else. You're unbelievable...
Whaoh!! I didn't know a driver can be great in practice 1, and if the team change the car setup to bad in practice 2, the driver can become ungreat LOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!
not backhanded, truthful is the word you're looking for. It was me replying to that, echo-ing the statement.
The amount of teeth gnashing, hand wringing, pearl clutching over Lewis moving to Ferrari is just pathetic. Long gone are the days when Il Commendatore reluctantly and scornfully sold road cars to fund racing. Today it's all about selling cars, brand recognition, and market penetration. Who better than Lewis to do that along with being a grade A+ driver? I know, I know, we've got thousands of posts in this very thread explaining in excruciating detail the proof that he's a subpar driver who's been lucky, has had the whole paddock, the FIA, Liberty, etc. cheating to make him look good since his first in utero ultrasound. It’s obvious Yuji Ide could have won in the same circumstances! Look, Chuck and Carlos are two great, youngish drivers with potential. I think Carlos is, and always has been, the better all round package, although you'd always pick Charles for a one lap wonder. But neither of them has the name recognition or broad public appeal that Lewis has. Lewis, Max, and Alonso are proven current top line drivers. Alonso has already had his shot at Ferrari, left on not so great terms, and seems to be a toxic prick every where he goes. Max isn't, or at least wasn't, available at the time Ferrari were looking. Ferrari needs someone to help move the brand forward, and despite the vitriol thrown here, he is massively popular, massively skilled, with wide ranging interests beyond racing. He loves the high life, fashion, music, style etc. Guess what? the average person Ferrari is trying to attract as customers also like, connect with, understand, and want these same things. Add in he’s undoubtedly one of the best drivers of all time, and it makes total sense. Now, with the ongoing internal issues and politics at Red Bull, Max may be enticeable, but he wasn’t then, and certainly, he wouldn’t bring the media, public persona, and reach beyond F1 that Lewis does. I don’t want to upset people, but I think, at least here in the States, Ferrari really needs someone like Lewis to promote the brand. Why? Because I think Ferrari has what I call the Harley Davidson syndrome in the US, and the US is still Ferrari’s biggest market. For decades H.D. were at the top of their game. For 25 years they were unstoppable, selling everything they could build, massive brand awareness, and merchandise sales that reached far beyond the actual owners. But then what happened? A decade ago Millenials started hitting their 30’s, Gen Z started coming of age, and these groups look at HD mainly with disdain, they are old people's status symbols that are an outdated joke to the younger generations. This isn’t good or bad, it just is. I think, at least here in the US, that the same thing is starting to happen to Ferrari. These days if you see a new or recent model Ferrari, it tends to be driven by middle age people. I don’t see the young entrepreneurs driving them. I see those younger supercar buyers in Lamborshini’s, McLarens, and even Rolls and Bentleys etc. Same thing last time I was at SEMA, lots of modified Lambo’s and McLaren’s on display, but very few Ferraris. I’m just not seeing the generational interest in the brand. I can’t back this up with figures, it’s just a personal observation, but I think it’s reasonable at least for their biggest market. Lewis is the ideal figure to help turn that around, and happens to be one of the best drivers ever to climb in an F1 car. I see lots of memes and things along the lines of ‘What F1 drivers used to be’ and ‘todays F1 drivers’, usually one with a picture of James Hunt, the other with LCH. What people ignore, I think at least generationally point of view, is that James wearing a T shirt saying ‘If you think my girlfriend’s fit, you should see her box’, a can of beer in hand, and bare feet, is exactly the same as Lewis wearing the latest fashion with gold jewelry on a scooter today. Both are frowned on as being stupid, frivolous and in some way not ‘proper’ by the establishment. It’s just a fact of life. Fashion, music, style, and presentation all change with time, and generally the older populations like to sit in their imagined superiority and look down on these immature idiots and laugh at them knowingly.
are Ferrari ready for a princess, and can they produce a car that fits within his narrow bandwidth ? it's going to be a fun and dramatic 2 years
Where is the racing in all this ? That's what usually attract people to follow F1, not the personality cult.
Because racing is only part of the appeal of LCH. The racing part is covered by 7WDC, 103 wins, etc. He's obviously more than qualified on the racing front, no matter what some people want to argue. I was specifically talking about reasons beyond the cockpit. Also, race wins don't directly equal sales. In 2007, Ferrari's last WDC they sold 7,500 cars. Ferrari won zero races in 2020/21 yet are still selling around 10K cars per year. Tell me again how important those wins are to the corporation looking at long term viability, vs their importance to a handful of uber fans? The whole point of racing is exposure and engagement, who does that better than LCH? No, I'm not a fanboy, he's not my favorite driver of today, let alone all time, I just get sick of the vitriol pointed his way compared to almost every other driver, although Lance gets an unfair amount of hate too.
I will not pretend that I fully understand Ferrari's reason to recruit Lewis Hamilton, and I am even wondering if it's related to their commercial interest. I have no proof, but I suppose it has more to do with a question of image for the Exxor group, and could even be related to tax deduction, since it has been whispered that John Elkann would pay a lot of money to a charity fronted by Lewis Hamilton. It's true that Ferrari sales are independent of their success on the track. Ferrari's profit isn't even related to their sales volume, so increasing production isn't their goal. By maintaing their exclusivity, they can justify increasing their prices; they are more interested in profit margin than turnover figures. That's what makes them different than car manufacturers always chasing numbers. You quoted sales around 10K in 2020/21; I have a figure of 13 221 sales for 2022, and the Ferrari CEO telling that he would like production to come down to around 10K. Lawrence Stroll, Aston Martin CEO, another luxury car maker, explained that when he took over the brand the mark on cars was 18%, and he wanted to bring it to 30%, by increasing the prices, not aiming at volume growth. That's exactly was Ferrari does. They limit their production by refusing sales, prefering boosting prices instead. They are in a customer segment where buyers like to spend more. It's part of the attraction to buy a Ferrari which is seen as a status symbol and an investment more than a product. There are many testimonies of new potential buyers being turned down to the profit of existing ones. To maintain the exclusivity of the brand, and not disseminate it largely, Ferrari tries to control its customer base and instil loyalty among them. All this the say that for me, Hamilton's arrival at Ferrari, their track success, and sales figures are absolutely not related.
One could say that being offended by the first sentence is evidence of pearl clutching in its own right. I hope we both have enough smiley faces to be understood as jokes and not get in trouble for poo poo stirring!
Great post; I, too, was surprised at the vitriol toward Hamilton as early as six years ago. I thought to myself, there is no way folks would hate him for the reasons Hamilton claims; I mean, in the 21st century? So I decided to find out for myself. I've talked to people, listened, and witnessed with my own eyes to confirm that Hamilton isn't lying about a lot of what he said. Folks with an 'older way' of thinking often fight tooth and nail to keep it that way. Ferrari don't want them, and that's good as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure they won't turn down their money, but they certainly won't put them on the cover of Ferrari magazine. They know that, that's why it makes them even more mad.
Ham has already been thoroughly compared to a youngster named George. He hasn't looked very sharp. And I think LEC is a notch above George. But agree that Ham is more consistent during the race than most. All of them are a notch down from Max today, who also has the best car, best team, best aero designer...
With the announcement that he's leaving, the team is also incentivized to prioritize Russell. I would not be surprised if this year is lackluster for Hamilton and next year is better. All the best, Andrew.
And yet Sainz has no seat currently for 2025, yet he fights for every point on the track. Same goes for Alonso as well regardless of how bad the car is.
Sainz is really making it look like Ferrari are letting go of the wrong driver. All the best, Andrew.
To be fair to Hamilton, that Mercedes is a clown car. As lacking as the previous years cars were, the W15 is an abomination so far. My guess is that the setups the team are using are based on their work with last years car, and it's waaaay off that. Mercedes should've retained more of their concept, so they wouldn't be starting from complete scratch. Ferrari didn't actually do anything that radical. They evolved the SF-23 into what the current SF-24 is today. That is what Mercedes should've done. OTOH, it was the drivers - including Hamster - that insisted the team scrap the previous work.
Neither Chuck or Sainz should've been traded. They're the strongest pairing on the grid, no contest. If Sainz continues his form and Ham his, it's not matter of if Ferrari have trade remorse, it's whether they'll act to do something about it to reverse course.
