Lewis Hamilton is convinced Ferrari’s “magic” will help him become Formula 1’s first and only eight-time champion.
The Brit is weeks away from his debut with the Italians at the Australian Grand Prix and yesterday drove his 2025 car for the first time. And afterwards the 40-year-old declared himself more hopeful than ever that he will win the championship again before he retires.
He said: “I’ve been fortunate to work in two teams previously, work with great organisations. You’ve seen in the history of the sport where you’ve got great teams and things don’t align and they end up, some of them, not winning the world championships.
“But this team already has an insane legacy and they’re not short of how many world championships they’ve won. So, I think in their DNA, they have that winning mentality. The competition is fierce and we’ve had great results from other iconic teams, like McLaren and Red Bull and obviously, Mercedes.
“It’s going to be close at the top, but I’ve got a great team-mate. The energy that I’m receiving from the team, there’s magic here. It’s going to still take a lot of hard work and grafting from absolutely everyone. And everyone’s putting that in already to achieve it. But it’s also about belief. Everyone here dreams of winning with Ferrari, every single person in this team.”
Hamilton won six of his seven titles with Mercedes and enjoyed an unprecedented amount of success during his 12-year stint with the Silver Arrows. But his final three seasons were difficult as he was saddled with temperamental cars that took an age for Mercedes to tame.
With Ferrari, he is desperate to hit the ground running. Hamilton said: “We’re getting everything set up so when we get to race one it is not hopefully the first six months that you are getting this tuned, you already have them ready.
“So we have put a huge amount of work into that, and also trying to speed up the process of getting to know each other and how they like to work and how I like to work. You can’t really short-cut that, you build trust and relationships over time. But every day’s been exciting, I literally wake up with excitement every day.”
Aged 40, Hamilton is in the twilight of what has been a remarkable F1 career. But his contract with Ferrari is a multi-year deal and, even if he achieves his title dream at the first attempt, the Brit cannot see himself walking away from the sport at the end of this year.
He added: “If I was fortunate enough to win another title, which is obviously what we’re setting out to do, I don’t see myself stopping.”
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