Hi OmarR-Pepper, great to hear from you. I’ll be rooting for Ham same as always regardless, but have to say my main emotion has been excitement. Would love to see him challenge at Monza in a Ferrari, gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. I still have a similar nervousness like I felt when he moved to Mercedes in 2015 about challenges that could be faced, but as long as he gives it his all then all good by me. It makes sense for him to be there for 2025, so that he can give his input to development of the 2026 car.

Excited to see how it goes (this year, next year and 2026)

I'd say it makes sense to keep with Lewis. They have a contract and it's probably an expensive one to buy out. He's also the best non-Max driver on the grid, so they won't find someone better.

It will be interesting to see what happens this year, though. I thought Lewis did get some preferential treatment this last year when they never fully answered George's questions over the radio. The talk about Lewis and his "experimental" setups in 2022 was rubbish as George was also helping the team. Lewis showed his team game at Singapore when he put George under pressure rather than work with him to overcome Lando and Sainz and get a better position for them both. While I think a good few things were said and done to keep Lewis happy, he has still shown the killer race pace when it mattered, and, like Alonso, he's a mite ahead of the (non-Max) young challengers as it stands. Age isn't just a number, though, and George must be motivated to best him this year. If I were him I'd feel unhappy with Lewis' conduct and the team's reaction to that. The team will no longer bend over backwards to appease Lewis, though, so some of these margins are now tilted in George's favour. The team will not suffer Lewis' mouth quite so much any more. I don't think Mercedes will do a Ferrari and fire him mid season as Ferrari did to Prost, however, and I think Lewis might be media savvy enough not to put himself in such a position.

There are a lot of questions, but there is no reason Lewis can't have a good season with them.

I believe that Hamilton's word should never again be taken seriously. He said repeatedly that he would never go to Ferrari and that he would end his career with the brand that gave him seven titles and I am referring to the engine manufacturer of course. I think he is a traitor to his word and ungrateful to Mercedes-Benz. I think George Russel has the opportunity of a lifetime to prove that he is a better driver than Hamilton.

It’s going to take a lot more than that to eliminate any dispute to “greatest ever”. I regard Fangio and Clark as the greatest F1 drivers and their combined tally of drivers championships is less than that of Hamilton or Schumacher. Even if you asked me who the greatest driver currently in F1 is, I’d probably answer Fernando Alonso. It’s not that I dislike Hamilton I just don’t think most of his championship wins were marks of a greatest ever driver. Without doubt he is one of the greatest ever though.

Yeah I bet Hamilton bounces after a handful of podiums in two years. I really hope that’s not the case but my optimism for Ferrari is all but depleted by now.

I guess Ferrarri will have to make some animal sacrifices to make up for the bad omen. (???)

In fact even alonso, despite having a lot less titles, is hamilton's equal, it's just circumstancial, depending on who had the better car for longer.

I also disagree an 8th would make him the greatest of all times, to me titles won with dominant cars have no value and schumacher definitely performed better in his races without a dominant car than hamilton did, not to mention old drivers like clark, fangio, ascari or new ones like verstappen, who's been atop of the game all the time, no matter if he had a dominant, a strong or an average car.

If said driver is still around the top 3 current drivers, why not, I'd say; age only matters when it causes you to drop performance.

Alonso to merc would be an equally interesting move! I'm very surprised hamilton actually swapped, people thought he wanted to do that for years but never seemed to me more than rumors.

I might be proven wrong as it was just his first season, but look at hamilton's first season: I don't believe piastri is any faster than russell and they would be missing a lead driver with that line-up.

To be fair, Vettel had established himself as a four times champion as well before he moved and Ferrari in 2013 and especially 2014 did not really set the world on fire. So there are quite a few similarities, but of course this is much, much bigger.

I think so too but for a different reason. Lewis has had luck on his side throughout his career. He took a gamble with Mercedes which played out beyond what one can hope for. Why wouldn't it happen again?

I agree Verstappen can not be compared to Hamilton. I never heard so many former drivers talk Lewis up the way they talk about Max. Let's not forget -when stripping of the fan bias- the massive advantage Lewis has enjoyed by driving the dominant Mercedes. Let me put it this way: if Hamilton had stayed at McLaren and Alonso would have taken the Mercedes seat, Alonso would be looking at 8 to 9 WDCs by now (depending on if the Rosberg scenario of winning 1 would have happened with Alonso) and Lewis would have 1 WDC. It is not a given fact Lewis is spectacularly great. Clearly one of the better ones out there, but lady luck certainly played a huge role in his career.

And great marketing value. Ferrari can leverage 7 WDC's. Sportive wise I agree, it brings nothing. Hamilton is good when the car can win a championship, but then Charles can do it too.

While it statistically would be epic, I do not agree it would make him the greatest. His tally is exaggerated by the dominance of the Mercedes car which was demonstrated by Rosberg also winning one, the more often 1-2 finishes of the car than not and the perpetual 'Valtteri, it's James' messaging. One of the greats for sure, but it takes a bit more than wins to be the overall great.

@david-br
Arguably the greatest ever move in the history of the sport. Only Senna going to Ferrari in the late 90s after equalling Fangio's record would have been greater. I've followed F1 since the late '90s, recalling moments like Alonso's shocking announcement of moving to McLaren after winning the WDC and the highly anticipated buzz among the tifosi when Alonso joined Ferrari. Kimi's move to Ferrari is also worth mentioning.

I have struggled to sleep when the rumor broke. I believed it was typical for Hamilton to leverage the Ferrari name in negotiations with Wolff. However, the timing, sources, and certain social indicators strongly suggested that a deal had already been finalized. A few days ago, Ferrari shared an image of their new sponsor Peroni that contained a miniature Ferrari with the number 44 which went unnoticed.

Mercedes surely were caught off guard with this move, the fact that they held a meeting in a hurry with the team members without Toto is quite telling. They were left with no chance to sign a top driver. The best they can do is hire Carlos Sainz who is linked to a move with Audi. Toto's only option seems to be placing Alonso in that Mercedes seat, a decision he may be hesitant to make unless pressured by other stakeholders.