Formula 1 commentator and pundit Martin Brundle believes that Lewis Hamilton’s announcement that he will join Ferrari in 2025 “is just what we needed to energise” the series.
Brundle’s response concerns a series of news announcements that occurred in the run-up to Mercedes announcing Hamilton had activated a clause in his contract to depart the Brackley team at the end of 2024 shortly before Ferrari confirmed the seven-time world champion as their driver to partner Charles Leclerc in 2025.
After a stagnant driver market in the offseason, with no driver movement heading into 2024 coupled with long-term extensions for McLaren’s Lando Norris and Ferrari’s Leclerc plus F1’s rejection of Andretti – Brundle feels the Hamilton news is a welcome spark.
“I was a little bit depressed earlier on in the week, depressed is probably too strong a word but Lando Norris is signed long term at McLaren, as is Oscar Piastri,” Brundle told Sky Sports News.
“George Russell is now on long-term at Mercedes Benz, Leclerc signed up long-term for Ferrari, Max Verstappen long-term at Red Bull and it all looked a little bit static, to be honest.
“The championship’s quite mature now in terms of the venues and I’m thinking ‘we need some stories’, Andretti didn’t get the entry, so this is just what we needed to energise it.”
Ferrari also felt the energising effect of being associated with Hamilton.
When rumours emerged Wednesday heading into Thursday that a deal was imminent, the Scuderia saw their market value rise by a staggering amount, approximately $7 billion.
The benefits of having Hamilton are clear to Ferrari a multiple world champion who will also do wonders for the brand, but what will Hamilton get out of the arrangement?
Brundle also pondered this in his conversation with Sky.
“He’s had a couple of years of not winning a race and we see other changes he’s made around with bringing back Marc Hynes, who was his long-time mentor, eyes and ears in the paddock, a former racer, a really solid guy to have around him,” Brundle said.
“And I think Lewis has probably gone ‘right, I’m going to stop focusing so much on all of the stuff outside of motor racing, and I just want to get back to Lewis Hamilton, the racing driver’, and I think this is just a wonderful opportunity to motivate him, to energise him for this phase of his career.”
Hamilton joins the Scuderia in the middle of a title drought for the Maranello-based squad as Ferrari’s last Drivers’ title came in the hands of Kimi Raikkonen in 2007.
The move has echoes of Michael Schumacher’s decision to join Ferrari in 1996 when the team had endured a similar drought, having not won the Drivers’ title at the point since Jody Scheckter’s triumph in 1979.
“We talked to him about it for years in interviews, [asking] ‘Wouldn’t you fancy doing a Michael Schumacher and going to Ferrari and trying to make them champions again?’ And he’s always said, ‘Look, I’ve been with Mercedes, even when I was at McLaren, I had Mercedes engines. They’re my team and my manufacturer for life’,” Brundle said.
“I am excited about it because what a story, Hamilton in a Ferrari.”
