Ferrari spill the beans on the true motive behind the early announcement of Lewis Hamilton’s 2025 move

According to Ferrari’s team principal, the announcement was made early in order to avoid any distractions.

Ferrari spill the beans on the true motive behind the early announcement of Lewis Hamilton’s 2025 move

Fred Vasseur and Lewis Hamilton (Credits: IMAGO)

The presentation and first laps of the SF-24 at the Fiorano circuit marked the official start of Ferrari’s 2024 season. As it was revealed at the beginning of the month, Lewis Hamilton will be Charles Leclerc‘s future teammate. Many were surprised to see Hamilton’s Ferrari move announcement coming even before the start of 2024.

Now Ferrari Team Principal, Frédéric Vasseur has come forth to break down the reason behind the early announcement. He pointed out that having the seven-time world champions on their team was a major opportunity they couldn’t pass, but they didn’t want this move to cause distractions. Hence they decided to make the announcements early and shift the entire focus to 2024. 

Lewis will certainly represent a great opportunity – the Frenchman quickly declared – but we want to stay focused on 2024 and we don't want to have any kind of distraction, which is why we made this announcement so soon because it is important for everyone to stay focused on the upcoming season.
Frédéric Vasseur said: formulapassion.it

The Maranello-based company’s main goal is to improve on its third-place finish in the Constructors’ World Championship. They would be hoping to give Carlos Sainz a good sent-off by fielding race-win-worthy cars and also getting them in a good position when Hamilton joins them.

Carlos Sainz was taken aback to learn that Lewis Hamilton will take his place

Sainz acknowledged that he was as shocked as everyone when he heard that Hamilton was leaving Mercedes to take his seat for the upcoming season, but the Spanish driver insisted that Ferrari had told him about the seismic transfer before the information was made public. After negotiating to extend his contract, which ends at the end of 2024, Sainz was anticipated to remain alongside Charles Leclerc for a minimum of one more season.

Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz
Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz (Via: IMAGO)
I got to know it a bit in advance before it all happened, it did surprise me but it also gave me a bit of time to think about it, to realise what was happening and try to move forward and thinking that with still one year ahead of us in Ferrari, I wanted to close off my chapter here in the best possible way.
Carlos Sainz Jr. told SkySports

Following Lewis Hamilton’s unexpected signing to take over as Ferrari driver starting in 2025, Carlos Sainz made it clear that he “totally respects” Hamilton and has no animosity towards him. He added that since he loves Ferrari and believes it’s a fantastic place to spend a portion of your career, perhaps he would have arrived here even sooner.

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