Piero Ferrari, vice president of the company of the same name and son of Enzo Ferrari, commented in an interview on Lewis Hamilton’s upcoming transition to the Scuderia and expressed his confidence that Lewis and Charles Leclerc will work well together.
Q: How did you meet Lewis?
Piero Ferrari: Maybe not everyone knows it, but Lewis always loved the charm of Ferrari.
Question: What do you mean?
Piero Ferrari: Lewis is one of our customers! He visited the Ferrari factory several times.
Question: Did he visit the racing department?
Piero Ferrari: No no. He came as a buyer of our cars. Lewis is not only a fast racer, he also has a true love for supercars. His garage couldn’t do without our cars, especially one model…
Question: Which one exactly?
Piero Ferrari: LaFerrari. Hamilton came to the factory to discuss the configuration of his copy. That’s when we met him and he told me something that surprised me…
Question: What exactly?
Piero Ferrari: Then Vettel drove for us. We were happy with Sebastian and extended the contract with him. Lewis joked: “If you had waited 12 months, I would have come.”
Question: Maybe he was already thinking about the transition?
Piero Ferrari: I do not think so. After all, he experienced and is still experiencing a fantastic period in his career at Mercedes. But Lewis is of course not indifferent to the history of Ferrari and racing legends. As a child, his idol was Ayrton Senna and in 2013 he took over from Michael Schumacher at Mercedes.
Personally, I’m happy he’s joining us. I don’t want to talk about the details of the contract as this is clearly not my area of responsibility. Lewis is ideally suited to continue the Ferrari myth.
Question: In the history of Formula 1, there have only been two drivers who became champions, moved to Ferrari and won the title again…
Piero Ferrari: You mean Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher. That’s true, and I think Lewis is coming to us at the right time.
Question: Are you afraid that there will be conflicts between Lewis and Charles Leclerc?
Piero Ferrari: No. Charles is a future champion. Ferrari has already proven that they believe in him. Hamilton is Hamilton. I don’t understand why there should be conflict between them.
Q: Are you concerned that such an early announcement of the transition will hinder work in 2024?
Piero Ferrari: We are talking about professionals, and some things are not unusual in Formula 1. At the beginning of 2006, Fernando Alonso announced that he would move to McLaren in 2007, but this did not stop him from winning the title with Renault.
Question: So Hamilton can win in 2024?
Piero Ferrari: Oh no! We hope to win in 2024, although that will be difficult.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
