Lewis Hamilton emerging as a title contender in his debut campaign with Ferrari and taking on Max Verstappen would be the “dream scenario” for the F1 2025 championship.

Four years after losing the Drivers’ Championship title to Verstappen, a revigorated and motivated Hamilton is expected to the Albert Park circuit in March looking to regain the crown.

Will Lewis Hamilton be Ferrari’s ‘saviour’?

Hamilton has swapped Mercedes for Ferrari ahead of the F1 2025 season with one goal in mind; winning his elusive eighth World title.

He was but a lap away from the Formula 1 record in 2021, leading the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix ahead of Verstappen in a winner-takes-all scenario, only for the race to be turned on its head by a controversial decision by then-FIA race director Michael Masi to restart the race with one solitary lap remaining.

Verstappen, on fresher tyres, overtook Hamilton to win the title, the first of four succession championship successes for the Dutchman. Hamilton, meanwhile, hasn’t even been in the running since as Mercedes struggled with F1’s new ground-effect aerodynamic cars that were introduced in 2022.

The Briton has since decided to swap silver for red, bidding farewell to Mercedes after 12 seasons in one final throw of the dice with Ferrari.

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Hamilton versus Verstappen is the blockbuster storyline that could await in the F1 2025 championship given Ferrari’s notable 2024 gains and Red Bull’s struggles.

“That’s a dream scenario of course, which we’ve already experienced,” said former F1 driver Robert Doornbos to Motorsport.com.

“[It was] two different manufacturers and different drivers competing against each other. But 2021 was of course extra special because that was the dethroning of Lewis Hamilton and new kid on the block Max Verstappen briefly taking over the title.”

Hamilton to Ferrari has dominated the F1 news cycle in January with every first the seven-time World Champion experiences with Ferrari making the headlines.

From the Briton standing outside of Enzo Ferrari’s iconic red-doored house to his first official visit at the team’s Maranello headquarters, the week culminated in Hamilton’s first run in a Ferrari F1 car as he put in the laps of the Fiorano circuit in an SF-23.

It was, Doornbos acknowledges, a monumental week and not just for Hamilton and Ferrari.

“I don’t know how you look at it, but I thought it was a legendary week for Formula 1,” he said.

“I really enjoyed the photos of Lewis Hamilton. The moment, the images, that he walks out of Enzo Ferrari’s house and drives his first meters on Ferrari’s famous Fiorano test circuit. I think this is a legendary moment in the history of the sport.

“A seven-time World Champion in red. It suits him well, we have to say.

“And of course you hope that after such a long dry spell at Ferrari, he will be the saviour and win that first Drivers’ or Constructors’ title after a very long time.

“Of course you also hope for an exciting battle with Max Verstappen, but whether that will happen in the first year, I don’t know. But the feeling is there and it would be great for us as fans!”

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