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Lewis Hamilton will be a Ferrari driver in 2025. Now that's something nobody would have thought would happen when the driver announced his contract extension with Mercedes in 2023. It has been a partnership that has lasted more than a decade.
Lewis Hamilton joined Mercedes at the start of the 2013 F1 season. Nobody would have thought that the driver and the German squad would have a rocketship at their disposal in 2014. Well, they did, and with that began the journey of success that included as many as six world titles.
After a lean period of three years where he has not won a title, the move to Ferrari makes a lot of sense. What this move also does is that it plays into the legacy that Lewis Hamilton has built ever since he debuted in F1 in 2007. The stint at the Italian team for the British driver might arguably be some of the most crucial years of his career.
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This particular stint has the power to either make or break Lewis Hamilton's claim to be the Greatest Of All Time. Let's take a look.
The Challenge that Lewis Hamilton faces at Ferrari
The first thing anyone needs to appreciate is the challenge that Lewis Hamilton signed up for when he put the pen to paper on that Ferrari contract.
A team where top drivers fail
It might sound like a daunting statistic, but Ferrari has been a team where world champions come and fail dramatically. Since the 1980s, here's a list of world champions who were a part of the team but failed to win the ultimate prize.
- Nigel Mansell
- Alain Prost
- Fernando Alonso
- Sebastian Vettel
You can add names like Gilles Villeneuve and Charles Leclerc to the list as some of the great talents who could not win with the team. The only man who was able to win consistently with Ferrari was Michael Schumacher. The German had such an impressive run with the team that it helped define the brand's legacy as well.
However, if we exclude the period when he was a part of the team, success has been non-existent. This is the team that Lewis Hamilton is stepping into and trying to win a world title.
A hungry and prodigiously talented teammate Charles Leclerc
It is a major surprise that far too many publications have not taken cognizance of the challenge that Lewis Hamilton is facing when he teams up with Charles Leclerc. Leclerc has lost a lot of his stock in the last few years because he has been a bit crash-prone and not mature enough as a driver.
Having said that, the driver is special and we were starting to see the real him by the end of the 2023 F1 season where he pulled off some stunning races. There is certainly an argument to be made that he might be the fastest driver over a lap on the current grid and his skewed poles-to-wins ratio does prove that to an extent. This is the challenge that Lewis Hamilton is going up against at Ferrari and there are many that would back his young teammate to even beat him.
This is precisely why the stint at the Italian team is daunting and it could go either way.
If he wins the title, Lewis Hamilton is the GOAT
Looking at the mountain of a task in front of him, if Lewis Hamilton is able to win a title with Ferrari, there's no doubt whatsoever that he would be the greatest driver in the history of F1.
None of his contemporaries could do it
The first step in becoming the greatest is when you supersede your peers. Lewis Hamilton grew up and has fought against the likes of Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso. Both his contemporaries were also multiple world champions. Alonso is a two-time world champion while Vettel retired as a 4-time world champion.
The one major blot that both of them had in their careers was the extended failed stint at Ferrari. Alonso raced at the team from 2010 to 2014 but couldn't win the title. Vettel raced from 2015 to 2020 and couldn't do it either. If Lewis is able to accomplish this, he would do something that his peers were unable to accomplish.
Only Michael Schumacher has had sustained success at Ferrari in the last 4 decades
In the last 4 decades, Ferrari has produced two world champions. Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen. While Michael almost built the team from the ground up, Kimi bore the fruit of his labors when he replaced the German in 2007 and won the title.
Other than Michael however, no other driver was able to maintain a sustained level of success with the team. It is the peak under Michael and the fall of Ferrari before and after him that solidifies his legacy as arguably the Greatest Of All Time.
If we compare Hamilton's career with Michael, this is one thing where he stands out. While Lewis did move to Mercedes at the right time and achieved success, Michael was different as he toiled for almost 5 years before he transformed Ferrari.
Lewis has that opportunity now and if he does win the title, he would have won the title with three different teams. That would just separate him from everyone in F1 and just place him at a different level.
If Lewis Hamilton fails, he's out of the GOAT debate
On the other side of the pond, however, let's look at the worst-case scenarios which would be the driver losing to Charles Leclerc and not even winning the title. Looking at how good Leclerc is and how error-prone Ferrari can be, this is entirely possible. If this happens, however, Hamilton is completely out of the debate from being the greatest.
His success came with a dominant car
Lewis Hamilton's career success can be predominantly attributed to his time at Mercedes where he had a very dominant car. The driver cruised to titles and while he does have seven of them, the questions tend to be raised on the quality of title battles as Mercedes didn't have much of it during his run.
If he cannot be successful with Ferrari, we're looking at a career of two halves that had brilliant results when the car was dominant, but before and after don't paint a good picture.
He would have lost to 4 different teammates
If Charles Leclerc is added to the list of teammates who got the better of Lewis, then we have as many as 4 different teammates who have got the better of him. Be it Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg, George Russell, or now Charles Leclerc, that's 4 different drivers that have had the better of him over a season.
For a driver touted to be the greatest, this statistic does not paint a great picture whatsoever.
Couldn't build a team to be a title winner
Finally, a critique that has followed since the days when he won everything is that many claimed that the driver got lucky with his move to Mercedes. The roadwork had been done by Michael Schumacher and Ross Brawn but with the German's retirement, Lewis picked up the pieces.
If he fails at Ferrari unlike Michael Schumacher who did succeed, you're looking at a scenario where a clear point of comparison goes against Lewis.
Conclusion
What Lewis has done by signing with Ferrari at this stage of his career is a bold move. It is also a move that comes with a lot of risk. Because of this, the driver should be commended for what he has done.
Having said that, with his latest move, Lewis Hamilton has put himself in a position where if he succeeds, he would be considered the GOAT, but if he fails, he suffers a major dent to his legacy.
