Shocker: Hamilton leaves Mercedes for...Ferrari

[Puma Cat]

All over the news today: Hamilton to join Ferrari in 2025.

https://www.youtube.com/live/z6CI5Zv...nqqfLxm7Me0Vei

IMHO, this won't make a difference in Hamilton's ability to win more F1 races, at all, because Ferrari's fundamental problems with respect to their lack of success in F1 of late are due to a lack of LEADERSHIP in the Executive Management (too many Executive cooks in the kitchen, for one thing) and ineffective MANAGEMENT from those Execs with respect to team EFFECTIVENESS (doing the RIGHT thing) and EFFICIENCY (doing things RIGHT).

Just look at LeClerc's win success rate: in the 5 years since he joined Ferrari, he's won a grand total of...5 GPs.

[SX-626]

He must think Mercedes isn’t gonna get it right soon so fulfill most drivers desire to drive for Ferrari, even if no championship there is likely

[vintage_tube]

Wow - had heard he was in secret negotiations but honestly did not think it would be leaked out this early one way or the other.

For Ferraris' sake, it's going to require more than the best F1 driver ever to mount themselves center podium.

Years ago, during the Shumacher era - I knew a Ferrari F1 mechanic - Mathis was his name & he told me Ferrari had 750+ people in Marinero supporting 2 cars -- next team head count back at their respective factory, headcount was 175. How do you compete with that "brain trust"? You try n' try.

Sort of sucks for Mercedes, knowing they have someone driving their car in '24 who has committed elsewhere.

Bob

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by vintage_tube

Sort of sucks for Mercedes, knowing they have someone driving their car in '24 who has committed elsewhere.

Bob

Toto Wolf's a big boy; he can handle it. He understands the reality of F1, just as when he let Valtteri Bottas go for George Russell. What's of note regarding that decision is that, overall, Bottas has out-competed Russell when you "normalize" their results driving for Mercedes.

[piolaxo]

Ferrari's stock up almost 10% based on the announcement, not even confirmed yet.
I remember when Schumacher joined Ferrari, then with Alonso and finally with Vettel,
but this one feels more shocking than any of the other greats.

The other things is that this move will also attract engineers and technical people
that will push the team even more. I'm looking forward this move. This year in fact,
the 'silly season' will be big.

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by piolaxo

Ferrari's stock up almost 10% based on the announcement, not even confirmed yet. I remember when Schumacher joined Ferrari, then with Alonso and finally with Vettel, but this one feels more shocking than any of the other greats.

The other things is that this move will also attract engineers and technical people that will push the team even more. I'm looking forward this move. This year in fact, the 'silly season' will be big.

Neither Alonso nor Vettel won any World Championships driving for Ferrari, and if I were to hazard a guess, neither will Hamilton. Ferrari's problems are fundamentally due to a lack of effective leadership. And, because the car itself is 90% of the "critical factors" for winning an F1 World Championship, and Ferrari doesn't have the leadership in place to effectively develop a consistently winning F1 car, it won't matter who is driving it. Red Bull's success the last 3 years is due to having effective leadership and...Adrian Newey. If Max weren't driving for Red Bull, Checo would be World Champion.

[Formerly YB-2]

With all the mechanical/electrical changes coming to F1, I wonder if Red Bull's dominance with Verstappen has not come to an end now that they have been forced to move to Ford power plants.

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by Formerly YB-2

With all the mechanical/electrical changes coming to F1, I wonder if Red Bull's dominance with Verstappen has not come to an end now that they have been forced to move to Ford power plants.

We’ll see. My personal hypothesis is as long as they have Adrian Newey, it likely won’t matter. But, it will interesting to see if Ford can develop F1 engines as reliable as those from HRC.

[JoeN]

Kind of off topic, but still related, for the first time ever I saw the movie Ford vs Ferrari (2019). It’s a story of Ken Miles who raced for Ford. It didn’t leave the car manufactures in a good light. Great movie IMO.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1950186/

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by JoeN

Kind of off topic, but still related, for the first time ever I saw the movie Ford vs Ferrari (2019). It’s a story of Ken Miles who raced for Ford. It didn’t leave the car manufactures in a good light. Great movie IMO.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1950186/

Yeah, it was a great movie. Plus, Christian Bale and Matt Damon were great together. I loved the scene where Ken takes the Ford exec for “a spin”.