Bewilderment, shock, and disbelief. The announcement that Lewis Hamilton would be joining Ferrari in 2025 after leaving Mercedes at the end of the 2024 season sparked these emotions among Formula 1 fans.
In Formula 1, Hamilton and Mercedes are now considered interchangeable. It was a marriage that appeared impossible to dissolve. However, the most successful driver-team combination in Formula 1 history will be history in 24 races.
Scarlet Red will be receiving the Silver Arrow from the seven-time champion. He is going to trade Maranello for Brackley and Brixworth. The sport’s most successful team will be led by its most successful driver in history.
Hamilton-Mercedes era coming to an end
Many saw Hamilton’s surprise 2013 switch from McLaren to Mercedes to be a huge risk.
How come a World Champion would switch to Mercedes from McLaren, the second-most successful team in Formula 1 history? A team that qualified fifth in the Constructors’ Championship in 2012 after just making their grid comeback as Constructors in 2010 following a 55-year break from the sport?
At the time, there was no acceptable response to the question. However, upon reflection eleven years later, it turned out to be a complete masterwork. Hamilton has accumulated 82 victories, 148 podiums, 78 pole positions, 3726.5 points, seven constructors’ championships, and six drivers’ championships in 222 Mercedes races.
With the exception of the 2021 Drivers’ Championship, the Hamilton-Mercedes combination won every major title available during the “Hybrid Era” of Formula 1 from 2014 to 2021.
The 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix dramas, which stand as the most Hollywood-plotted season finale in Formula 1 history, kept Hamilton from taking the lead over Schumacher and capturing a record eighth Drivers’ Championship.
When Formula 1 transitioned to a new generation in 2022, dubbed the “Ground Effect Era” due to ground effect aerodynamics, the Hamilton-Mercedes hegemony ended.
Mercedes had a disastrous 2022 because of its grave misjudgment of the Ground Effect Era. Slightly behind Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez in the all-conquering Red Bull RB19, they did, however, finish second in the 2023 Constructors’ Championship, and Hamilton finished third in the 2023 Drivers’ Championship.
Therefore, why did Hamilton choose to quit Mercedes before he had even had a chance to drive the W15 on a racetrack? All of the causes are listed here.
Zero confidence, zero sidepods
The most significant technical regulation change to Formula 1 since 1983 took place in 2022. Now that the Hybrid Era was ended and Mercedes had dominated the entire field, Formula 1 was back in the Ground Effect Era.
As a result, 2022 was the most anticipated season in years. The entire paddock was shocked when Mercedes showed up for pre-season testing in Bahrain driving a car without sidepods. a style that distinguished it significantly from that of Ferrari and Red Bull, their two principal competitors.
But with Mercedes having dominated the sport for the previous eight years, there was concern that the Silver Arrows might have had a head start on the second consecutive technical regulation adjustment. However, this couldn’t be further from the reality.
The W13 porpoised (bounced) its way around most tracks throughout the 2022 season, giving Hamilton and teammate George Russell the impression that they were riding rollercoasters on wheels. Mercedes’ “Zero-Pod” concept proved to be a catastrophe.
In retrospect, Mercedes’s 1-2 finish at the Brazilian Grand Prix was the worst thing that happened to them in 2022 since it gave them false hope that their defective Zero-Pod concept could actually work.Disarray in technology and mechanical brain drain
Mercedes’ technical staff suffered a serious blow at the same time as the largest technical regulation change in nearly 40 years.
James Allison resigned from his position as Technical Director in April 2021 to take on the newly formed position of Chief Technical Officer for the America Cup team of Mercedes AMG and INEOS Britannia.
To put it briefly, as Hamilton was engaged in one of the most intense championship races in Formula 1 history, Ben Ainslie’s 37th America’s Cup campaign was being led by the head of Mercedes technical team, a crucial division in maintaining a Formula 1 car’s competitiveness.
Mike Elliott took over for Allison, and it was Elliott’s Mercedes technical staff who obstinately adhered to the unworkable Zero-Pod idea.
When Allison returned to her prior role as Technical Director in April 2023, Elliot lost his job as Chief Technical Officer as a result of this error. After eleven years with Mercedes, Elliott finally left the team in October 2023.
Adrian Newey, the renowned chief technical officer of Red Bulls, was observing another of his mechanical marvels win the constructors’ and drivers’ championships in 2023.
Average tactics, average pit stops
Larger 18-inch tire rims were also introduced during the Ground Effect Era, replacing the earlier 13-inch rims that had been in use since the 1980s. Mercedes had significant issues due to the larger rims and heavier tires.
Throughout the 2022 season, the only teams with slower average pit stops than Mercedes were Haas F1 Team and Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber. Although there was some improvement in pit stops in 2023, Mercedes still concluded the season ranked sixth overall.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said after the 2023 United States Grand Prix that the team’s pit stops were their weakest point.
In the meantime, Red Bull won the DHL Pitstop Award in 2023 for the sixth time in a row. This honor is given to the team that has the fastest season-long average of pit stops.
In addition to poor pit stops, Mercedes’ strategy calls started to be questioned. The loss of chief strategist James Vowles in January 2023 to take a position as Team Principal at Williams Racing exacerbated this.
In order for Max Verstappen to win 34 of 45 races in 2022 and 2023 and win the world championship three times, Hamilton had to witness all of this chaos.
Hamilton’s transfer to Ferrari marks the end of his championship dice, given that he turned 39 last month.
Why Ferrari?
The most illustrious team in Formula 1 history is Ferrari. Since the World Championship’s founding in 1950, they are the only team to have participated in every season.
