For the first time in over a decade, Lewis Hamilton will kick off a Formula 1 season as a non-Mercedes driver. Instead, he’ll don the deep red of Scuderia Ferrari for the first time in his career.

While the Hamilton/Mercedes partnership carved a distinct path into the history books, Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur is shying away from the “copy-paste” method of integrating Hamilton into the team.

Fred Vasseur promises a fresh start for Lewis Hamilton

In 2013, Lewis Hamilton made an audacious, career-defining move, hedging his bets on the Mercedes team the season before a new set of technical regulations that turned the tides away from Red Bull and towards Mercedes.

Mercedes has World Champion Niki Lauda to thank for that swap; it was the Austrian’s influence that encouraged Hamilton to swap allegiances, and with Lauda’s influence, Hamilton developed close bonds with everyone from Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff to his engineers.

That kind of all-trusting environment allowed both Mercedes and Hamilton to thrive until a change in regulations saw the team err with its “zero-sidepod” concept. The team fell from grace, and relationships began to sour.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Lewis Hamilton was keen on a change of scenery heading into 2025, or that he’s opted for a stint at the legendary Scuderia Ferrari.

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But Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur isn’t interested in all that came before. Instead, he’s imagining a very different future for his latest star at the Scuderia — one that may look different than anything either he or Hamilton have done before.

“I’m not sure that we have to do a copy-paste of what he did with Mercedes,” Vasseur told media at a Ferrari event in Maranello, as reported by RacingNews365.

“The environment [at Mercedes] worked very well at the beginning, a bit less at the end.

“We have to find the best way to manage Lewis. I know him pretty well, but I don’t want to do at all a copy-paste of what he did in the past.”

With a driver as experienced as Hamilton, it would be easy for a team to get wrapped up in trying to emulate the patterns that previously led the driver to the top of the charts.

However, that’s a strategy that often fails, if only because it is almost impossible to perfectly replicate the patterns and variables that fell into place in a previous era.

It may take some time, but Lewis Hamilton is sure to find a totally new way of racing with Scuderia Ferrari; it sounds as if Fred Vasseur aims to guarantee it. In an interview with Autosprint, the team boss sounded confident in his new driver’s skills, but that there was no expectation Hamilton would have it all figured out right from the start.

“As far as Lewis is concerned, it’s not just a matter of speed, of pure performance,” Vasseur explained.

“It will bring the experience of a seven-time champion who has worked in top teams. It’s very good for a team to have someone who brings different experiences, especially if they’re at the level of Lewis.

“We need to have the right approach and take advantage of his experiences. It’s always important to try and learn from outsiders, whether it’s Hamilton or someone else.

“I know Hamilton very well, I know his motives, his way of working. I don’t want to make comparisons with other drivers, but I’m convinced that it will fit perfectly into our system.”

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