How did Ferrari manage to keep Lewis Hamilton’s $100 million worth move a secret?
Lewis Hamilton has been active in Formula 1 for 18 years now, and he has decided to jump ship from Mercedes to Ferrari at 39 years of age when most racers retire from the sport.
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Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari (via X)
Lewis Hamilton‘s move to Ferrari has been making all the headlines in the Formula 1 world recently, and there have been several speculations about it. The Mercedes racer has commanded immense respect and decisive power at the Brackley outfit, but he has still chosen to shift to a new environment where he will have to adjust to the Italian customs in Maranello. At 39 years of age, most F1 racers retire from the sport, but Lewis has signed a multi-year contract with Ferrari, and people were shocked to find it out so abruptly.
At Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton’s annual salary, as reported by Forbes in 2023, is $55 M. On the other hand, they have also claimed that his endorsements yield a total of $10 M per year as well. But there have been several claims that Ferrari dangled a brand new $100 M contract in front of the Briton. Now, the question that arises is how they managed to keep such a huge deal under wraps so that noone had a clue that Lewis would be shifting to Ferrari after spending 12 years as a Silver Arrows racer.
As per the reports of Formu1a.uno, Ferrari CEO John Elkann orchestrated every detail on such a way that Lewis Hamilton’s shift to their team was treated like a ‘Presidential’ decree. The report further claimed that only a handful of people were aware of the news that the seven-time World Champion would be activating the exit clause in his Mercedes contract to go to Ferrari.
How has Lewis Hamilton’s future teammate Charles Leclerc taken to the news of his arrival at Ferrari?
Charles Leclerc is the Ferrari prince who joined them back in 2019 and is the heartthrob of all the Tifosi. They have been placing their World Championship hopes on him till now, and as multiple F1 title-holder Lewis Hamilton will be entering the squad as well, there might be a clash between Leclerc and him. But the Formu1a.uno report has also stated that Charles Leclerc was amongst the handful of people who knew about Ferrari’s contract with Lewis Hamilton and his reaction was ‘positive’.
Only a few days before Lewis’ news of jumping ship from Mercedes to Ferrari was announced, Charles Leclerc revealed his multi-year contract extension with the Scuderia. The 26-year-old’s deal with the oldest and most successful F1 team in history perhaps does not have any end date as it was not spoken of in the reports. This would imply that it is the first-ever endless contract in the history of Scuderia Ferrari.
In other news, Lewis Hamilton is coming into Ferrari as a replacement for Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard had spent two years with the Maranello outfit before getting axed despite scoring a Grand Prix win for them in 2023. Carlos’ team has announced the news of him not continuing with the Scuderia via X and have also said they will reveal more news about his future in the upcoming days.
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)