The eyes of the world will be on Lewis Hamilton when pre-season testing begins in Bahrain in February.
That’s because, for the first time in Hamilton’s Formula 1 career, he won’t be driving a Mercedes-powered car.
Ferrari sniffed an opportunity ahead of the 2024 season that the seven-time world champion might be available in the foreseeable future.
Mercedes had only tied Hamilton down to a one-plus-one-year contract, with exit clauses for both parties.
Ferrari offered Hamilton a two-year deal with the option to extend for an extra season into 2027.
Hamilton will be desperate for Ferrari to continue the strong run of form they showed during the second half of this season.
Charles Leclerc’s victory in Monza – albeit with a special update delivered for that track – highlighted that they’re more than capable of fighting McLaren and a step ahead of Red Bull.
His performance in Abu Dhabi – racing from 19th to third – was extraordinary and if Lando Norris had slipped up, Ferrari would have won the Constructors’ Championship.
However, Hamilton has been very self-critical about his performances this year, particularly in qualifying.
Mercedes teammate George Russell outqualified him 19-5 during the longest season in the sport’s history, and Leclerc is regularly considered F1’s best qualifier.
Red Bull chief Helmut Marko, in an interview with Speedweek, still believes Hamilton is ‘world-class’ in another area.
Helmut Marko says Lewis Hamilton is still a ‘world-class’ racer
Talking about the upcoming season, Marko said: “We can also be excited about Lewis Hamilton in the Ferrari.
“He will have one of the strongest opponents in qualifying in Charles Leclerc. In the race, he can still be world-class if the car is right.
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“But we also saw at Mercedes that his motivation is limited if the car isn’t very good.
“He needs to know that he can get on the podium with it. He’s unlikely to go out of his way for a tenth place.”
Lewis Hamilton proved in Abu Dhabi that he’s still going to be valuable to Ferrari
One of the biggest talking points as the season wore on was whether Ferrari had made the correct decision to replace Carlos Sainz with Hamilton.
Eddie Jordan urged Ferrari to rip Hamilton’s contract up, such was the talent they were letting go to head to Williams.
Sainz will be a man on a mission next year as he tries to drag the midfield outfit up the standings and prove that he deserves to be challenging for race wins.
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His victory in Mexico City off the back of a stunning lap in qualifying to earn pole position highlighted why he feels he should be in contention to challenge for championships.
But Hamilton is far from done yet as the final race of his time with Mercedes proved.
An unfortunate collision with a bollard limited him to P16 and a recovery drive when his car was quick enough to be battling for a podium.
He produced an incredible move on his teammate – who started 10 positions ahead of him – on the final lap of the race to come out on top in their head-to-head battle as teammates over the past three seasons.
If he can come out on top in his next intra-team battle against Leclerc, he might just be adding an eighth world championship to his collection.
