When Hamilton disclosed his Ferrari intentions, he said, A great way to end my F1 career.
When Lewis Hamilton revealed he was joining Ferrari, the Formula One paddock was taken aback. However, Matt Bishop remembers a discussion from a few years ago in which the seven-time champion was very clear about his objectives.
Time travel to Monday, September 28, 2015, late at night. In the Roppongi neighborhood of the Japanese capital, I’m eating food and beverages on a sofa at the rear of the Lex Tokyo Lounge Bar alongside a few McLaren colleagues.
Since we haven’t bathed ourselves in glory over the previous several days—as is so common this season—we are, in fact, drowning in our sorrows. After qualifying 12th and 14th at Suzuka, our drivers Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button battled to 11th and 16th, respectively, only to be passed by the winner, Lewis Hamilton, who cruised to his eighth Grand Prix victory of the year, leading all 53 laps in his all-conquering Mercedes.
Although Lex is now permanently closed, it used to be a favorite hangout for Formula 1 traveling circus performers. Thus, as Monday night dragged on, a phalanx of F1 journalists, photographers, and TV personalities—including a few former drivers who had transitioned to commentating for a living—came in, along with representatives from Red Bull, Williams, and Force India.
Before long, Lex was nearly empty except for Formula One personnel. Pitlane and paddock regulars kept coming in groups of two, four, and six, with the occasional current driver among them, until a group of senior Mercedes engineers arrived, with Hamilton leading the group.
Sometimes you just feel like you need a change because you’ve been somewhere for too long.
Lewis approached our little group after a while, as it had just been three years since he had moved from Woking to Brackley.
Before long, he and I were having a tête-à-tête. I wrote down what he said to me in my notebook as soon as I got back to my hotel at the adjacent Conrad Hotel a few hours later, but I have never shared it with anyone before. However, with the announcement last week, I believe I can. What I wrote down is below.
That’s it, then. His great strategy has always included Ferrari. Of course, the Scuderia will pay him a king’s ransom the following year, but he already makes enormous sums of money at Mercedes.
So, money is not the reason behind his action. Is legacy a factor? Sure, to some extent, but it’s also about accepting a challenge. Recall that at the end of 2012, after winning the last two Grand Prix for us McLarenites with Jenson, he left McLaren for Mercedes.
This caused most F1 insiders, journalists, pundits, and fans to whisper, write, or broadcast that he might have made a huge mistake, but he seemed blissfully unperturbed.
We all know that he can be a bit of a fusspot; his numerous snarky conversations with his longtime Mercedes race engineer, Peter Bono Bonnington, have become legendary in the racing world.
However, he uses it as one of his coping mechanisms when a race is not going as planned. All of this is part of his hammer-time act. Outside of the hectic world of actual racing, he is incredibly focused, persistent, and driven when it comes to large-scale thinking.
Many have drawn comparisons between his switch from Mercedes to Ferrari and his switch from McLaren to Mercedes. There are definitely parallels.
In many respects, though, his most recent move makes more sense than the previous one, even though the former proved to be a brilliant one that decisively silenced everyone who believed he ought to have stayed at McLaren.
Mercedes had only placed fourth, fourth, and fifth in the constructors’ world championships held in 2010, 2011, and 2012. In contrast, McLaren had finished second, second, and third in those races.
Furthermore, Ferrari alone surpassed McLaren as a team in stature and heritage at that time. In contrast, Mercedes dropped to third and second in 2022 and 2023, when Hamilton added exactly zero victories to his incredible 103-win total.
Mercedes went on to dominate the constructors’ standing from 2014 to 2021. In that same era, George Russell, his Mercedes teammate, only managed one victory; meanwhile, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz teamed for five victories.
Hamilton is going to fight Leclerc like a beast. Which Ferrari teammate stands to benefit the most?
Will Hamilton lead the Scuderia to world championships? He might. Maybe not. When he races a Ferrari for the first time, he will be 40 years old, so history will not be on his side. However, he is still a superb driver and is far fitter than most butchers’ dogs, much like Fernando, who is nearly four years his senior.
Furthermore, just as Mercedes executives Niki Lauda and Ross Brawn pressed him hard in the latter part of 2012, telling him time and time again that Mercedes had the capacity and the will to surpass McLaren, so too have John Elkann, the chairman of Ferrari, and Fred Vasseur, the team principal of Scuderia Ferrari, been equally tenacious in their attempts to persuade him that Ferrari would be the team most equipped for the brand-new F1 in 2026.
Hamilton and Elkann are close friends, and in 2006, Hamilton competed in the GP2 championship event in Vasseur’s ART Dallara. They have a lengthy history together.
Toto Wolff, the team principal for Mercedes, is probably feeling a little uncomfortable right now. However, he is presumably already enjoying fielding calls from drivers like Esteban Ocon, Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly, Valentino Alonso, and, well, Sebastian Vettel. Andrea Even Kimi Antonelli? Sure, maybe. He is without a doubt the standout of the current Mercedes Junior Team.
He recently aced an F3 test intended for F2 drivers, completely outpacing their lap times in the rain—a positive indicator. But he’s only seventeen.
However, Max Verstappen made his Formula One debut at the age of 17, and he appears to have done well. Given their close friendship, Wolff might be more enraged with Vasseur than with Hamilton.
Wolff is the team manager of Ferrari. In fact, when Vasseur travels to England, he sleeps in the Wolffs’ spacious, luxurious, and eerily clean Oxford mansion. It remains to be seen if that arrangement will hold.
The last two seasons of Formula One have been quite similar. Things might be similar this year. By 2025, they won’t. Everyone will benefit from the great switcheroo, even Lewis Hamilton.
As he stated on Monday, September 28, 2015, in the evening at Lex Tokyo Lounge Bar in Tokyo’s Roppongi neighborhood, Sometimes you just feel you’ve been somewhere too long and you need a change. You do, in fact. I hope the best for him.
