Ferrari is seeking to the longer term and the wait is nearly over. In just some weeks, we are going to witness the much-anticipated occasion introduced final February. In fact, we’re speaking about Lewis Hamilton’s debut in pink, which is able to doubtless happen on a TPC programme, specifically a Testing of Earlier Automobile from Maranello on the Fiorano residence circuit. Such feverish anticipation has not been seen in thirty years, not since Michael Schumacher’s debut within the Ferrari 412T2 on November 16, 1995. Earlier than that, the main focus was on Alain Prost, who joined because the reigning world champion.
After Sebastian Vettel, the Prancing Horse may have one other a number of world champion in its ranks. Not like his predecessors, apart from “The Professor”, Lewis Hamilton will discover a crew that has made fixed technical progress over the past two years and has reasonable championship ambitions. Primarily, the historic Maranello crew is just not looking for a savior to compensate for an absence of technical certainty, because it has up to now. As an alternative, Lewis Hamilton is predicted to be the cherry on prime, an added worth to a crew already able to successful and combating for bold, victory-focused targets.
Nonetheless, Frederic Vasseur has refuted this concept, stating that the intensive high-level expertise of the Anglo-Caribbean driver can even be essential for the 2026 Method 1 championship. Based on the French supervisor, inner competitors might additionally profit Charles Leclerc. The seven-time Method 1 world champion’s transfer to Maranello is a extremely important media occasion, one which dangers overshadowing the historic crew’s targets for the upcoming marketing campaign. That is the state of affairs’s inherent danger.
Past the arrival of the English champion, the Maranello crew should full its development curve, aiming to struggle for each championship titles till the very finish. In any case, the historic Italian crew boasts one of many grid’s quickest drivers, who demonstrated final season the maturity essential to goal for any aim. This, after all, refers to Charles Leclerc, who, within the second half of final season, scored extra factors than any of his colleagues, although not with out some regrets, such because the unlucky Singapore weekend.
Due to this fact, the savior anticipated to convey Ferrari again to the highest of the world might not essentially be the seven-time English world champion. Certainly, Charles Leclerc’s current multi-year renewal with the crew is tangible proof that the Monegasque represents the current and long-term way forward for the Italian squad. Given this, the subsequent season have to be Ferrari’s season, not essentially Lewis Hamilton’s, even when the partnership between the British celebrity and the historic Italian crew fuels the attract of a singular potential ending.
Former Ferrari president Luca Cordero di Montezemolo completely summarized the dangers and alternatives of the “partnership of the century.” The Italian described Lewis Hamilton as a phenomenon, akin to Max Verstappen, emphasizing that his arrival at Ferrari was not a advertising and marketing technique however a transparent intention to conclude his profession by successful with the Maranello crew. The previous Ferrari president acknowledged the selection as a danger, noting that they’d introduced in a champion with a historical past of great victories, who joined Ferrari with the identical aim. On the identical time, the Italian highlighted that Charles Leclerc was performing properly, although he had but to safe a win.
These have been the phrases of Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, the final president to steer the Italian crew to the highest of the world. The aim for the subsequent Method 1 season is obvious: successful past any attract. The pleased ending doesn’t need to be Lewis Hamilton’s eighth world title however Ferrari’s sixteenth drivers’ championship. If the 2 goals align, nobody will complain. However the necessary factor, as we’ve got reiterated, stays one and the identical: to be in entrance of everybody.
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