The drama surrounding Hamilton's Ferrari switch is F1 at its best

Thursday February 1, 2024. It’s a date that will now live long in the memory of hardcore Formula 1 fans.

Waking up early in the morning, rumours started swirling that Lewis Hamilton could be about to sign for Ferrari. But they were just rumours.

Nobody was really believing it would become a reality. 

Hamilton has Mercedes running through his veins, having been associated with the German manufacturer since the very early days of racing, when he was being backed by McLaren Mercedes. 

It was also with the Silver Arrows where Hamilton won all but one of his seven F1 world titles.

So talk of a switch to Maranello and scarlet red overalls seemed unthinkable.

With the rumours surfacing, it was easy to dismiss them as that - rumours. But they kept coming, and from more and more sources.

The snowball began to gain momentum, growing all the while, until there was so much evidence that the lightbulb moment struck - this is actually happening.

News outlets were quickly firing out stories confirming they’d independently corroborated the rumours. Sky Sports got its team down to the Mercedes factory in Brackley, waiting for any information it could get its hands on.

Clear signs that this was becoming a reality began around lunchtime. 

The media got wind that Mercedes employees were being called to a meeting at the factory, and at 2pm they were told that Hamilton would be leaving the team at the end of 2024.

This information was being fed back to the media via various sources, but the one thing missing was official confirmation.

With Mercedes having its meeting at 2pm, many people assumed that the news would be made official then, or an hour later.

But the official release didn’t arrive. 

Everyone kept waiting and waiting, the day was nearing an end, and you started to wonder if it was actually going to officially break or not.

Then 7pm hit. Ferrari and Mercedes confirmed the news.

Hamilton will leave Mercedes to join Ferrari on a multi-year deal at the end of the 2024 F1 season, replacing Carlos Sainz.

This announcement isn’t just your average driver signing news. This is huge, it’s about as big as it gets.

The drama generated throughout the day about the prospect of this move happening was incredible.

Everyone was lapping it up, including media channels that barely ever discuss F1.

It created a buzz at a level that doesn't come around all too often in F1. The fact that it seemed to catch personnel at Mercedes off guard as well, is what made it so spectacular.

And during a time when driver pairings appeared to be stagnant, Ferrari and Hamilton threw in the biggest bomb possible to blow that assumption out of the water.

Why is Hamilton moving?

Hamilton has never been afraid to hide his affection for Ferrari, but his loyalty has always been with Mercedes. He was even guaranteed a lifetime ambassadorial role with the company, almost ensuring he’d stay committed to the team for the rest of his career.

He was to be the new Stirling Moss. Mercedes’ golden boy who could do no wrong and was fiercely loyal until the end. 

And so nobody saw this coming, especially since Hamilton has always maintained that he wouldn’t be racing in F1 into his 40s. 

But by committing to Ferrari on a multi-year deal, that’s now exactly what it means.

People will question why Hamilton sees the need to move teams so late in his career, especially after all the success Mercedes has provided for him.

Ferrari after all hasn’t exactly been winning multiple world championships all that recently either.

You can take many theories on that reasoning though.

The first would be that the Ferrari has often been the second fastest car on the grid, and in the latter part of last season, it proved to be on a par with the Red Bull in qualifying and not too far away on race pace.

And if Hamilton hasn’t liked what he’s seen with Mercedes’ work over the winter on its 2024 car, it’s quite conceivable that he believes Ferrari gives him the best opportunity of winning that coveted eighth world championship title.

That takes a big leap into the unknown though. It’s not a move many drivers in Hamilton’s position would make. But in many ways that’s the key.

Hamilton’s in a position that so few drivers will ever find themselves in.

He’s won more grands prix than anyone else in history, he’s won seven world championship titles and he’s consistently proven that on his day he’s the best driver on the grid.

It means he has absolutely nothing to prove to anyone. 

Even if the move to Ferrari doesn’t work out as hoped, the reality is, it doesn’t matter. It’s not going to harm his reputation, or take anything away from the success he achieved with Mercedes. 

But what this move does allow him to do is fulfil a lifelong ambition - to race in F1 for the Scuderia. 

That opportunity is something most drivers grow up dreaming about, and it’s one that very few have the chance to fulfil. 

And at this stage of Hamilton’s career, it’s not inconceivable that he’s made this decision with his heart more than his head. 

That’s not to say he’s making the wrong decision - far from it. It’s just that his motivation in making the leap to Maranello doesn’t need to be purely about the numbers, or the laptime.

Hamilton would never have agreed to join Ferrari if it was languishing in the midfield, but this version of Ferrari is one of the most competitive teams on the grid right now, and so it makes that leap of faith easier.

That and coupled with the fact that Fred Vasseur is now heading up the team, a man Hamilton has worked well with in the past in the junior categories, means that if Hamilton were ever going to consider joining Ferrari, there’s no better time than now.

We still have to wait over 12 months before we will find out whether Hamilton has made the right decision.

But right now, who cares? The drama and excitement that unfolded yesterday was F1 at its best. 

Seeing talk of the biggest driver in F1 potentially joining the most iconic team captured everyone’s imagination.

We might have to wait a year to see it, but in the meantime, we’ll spend the next year dreaming about it.

This is F1 silly season at its best. And while most of us will remember February 1, 2024 for that announcement, we’ll all remember the date Hamilton first leaves the garage behind the wheel of a Ferrari.

Legends and icons don’t come together very often, but when they do, it’s always an occasion to remember.