Hamilton’s Ferrari ‘punt’ questioned in ‘absolutely true’ Mercedes verdict
Lewis Hamilton pictured in a Ferrari debrief in Barcelona
Ted Kravitz has questioned whether Lewis Hamilton “knew” that Ferrari would get it right in 2024 and that Mercedes wasn’t the “place to be” before making his decision to swap teams.
Hamilton shocked the world of motorsport, including Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, when he announced on February 1st 2024 that he would leave Mercedes to join F1 rivals Ferrari on a multi-year deal in 2025.
Did Lewis Hamilton know something?
Hamilton had signed a new two-year deal with Mercedes in the summer, but five months later he informed Wolff over a breakfast meeting that he had exercised a clause to leave one year into the one-plus-one deal.
Although he would go onto break his 945-day winless streak at the British Grand Prix before adding a second win at Spa, Mercedes’ form during the F1 2024 season was erratic at times with Wolff admitting early in the campaign that they “don’t understand” the car, while near the end of the season they still weren’t on top of some of the W15’s “uglier behaviour”.
Hamilton finished his final year with the Silver Arrows seventh in the Drivers’ standings, the first time ever he was not inside the top six.
Ferrari on the other hand made gains last season, winning five races in total and coming within 14 points of the Constructors’ Championship title.
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It has pit lane reporter Kravitz pondering whether Hamilton took a punt or if he knew something.
“But did Lewis know when he decided over the winter, ‘Do you know what, we haven’t even turned a wheel in testing yet but I don’t think Mercedes is the place to be – I’m going to go at Ferrari’,” Kravitz asked on the Sky F1 podcast.
“Was that just a leap in the dark for you?
“Because it turned out to be absolutely true. Look at Mercedes. They’ve been a bit lost.
“They never knew which kind of car was going to turn up at the racetrack and what it was going to do. It might win brilliantly, like in Belgium then one gets disqualified because they’re running it too low, too light, the wear, whatever.
“Do you think Lewis knew, or do you think that was just a punt?”
He put that question to his fellow pundit and former F1 driver Karun Chandhok.
“I think only he can answer that question,” Chandhok replied. “I think it was a punt, because how could you tell what the opposition were doing?
“He would have obviously have had a feeling of what was going on at Mercedes. And he’s talked about, you know, people not necessarily listening to what he was saying and not fully taking on board some of his thoughts of where he thought the cars should go and things like that.
“You know on reflection early in the year, he was talking about some of those conversations so maybe that just steered him towards thinking, ‘Maybe I’ll go somewhere else where they will listen a bit more’.
“I don’t know, but it’s funny, I was re-watching some interviews that were done towards the end of 2012 with people like Niki Lauda about Lewis coming to Mercedes. And even that was a bit of a punt, because he just wanted a change of environment to leave McLaren and go to somewhere else.
“And I think it’s a calculated risk. It’s worked out once, we’ll see what happens again.”
Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff was asked in the wake of the Hamilton’s announcement whether the Briton had driven the W15 before making his decision to leave for Ferrari.
He denied it, saying: “I think he’s taken his decision over the winter to join Ferrari and there’s benefits of keeping it to yourself and then deciding maybe at a later stage.
“But then also if you have set your mind and you are sailing, that’s okay.”
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