Hamilton Looks Ahead To 'Daunting' Challenge At Ferrari

Monday, 15 July 2024 at 10:00

Speaking ahead of the weekend when he recorded his 104th victory, Lewis Hamilton discussed the "daunting" challenge that awaits him at Ferrari.

As you know, Lewis Hamilton will leave the Mercedes F1 team after the end of the current (2024) season to join Scuderia Ferrari and race alongside Charles Leclerc.

Ferrari is the most successful team in Formula One history, and it has always attracted Champions like the 39-year-old Briton. However, the Italian team has not had much success in recent history.

In fact, the most recent title that the team from Maranello won was in the 2007 Constructors' Championship after the disqualification of McLaren.

Since then, Ferrari has finished second numerous times, but even with legendary drivers like Fernando Alonso or Sebastian Vettel, they haven't been able to win the Championship.

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This is one unlucky streak that the seven-time World Champion will try to break. But what awaits him at Ferrari is also a different kind of challenge. Speaking to Sky Sports ahead of the 2024 British Grand Prix, he said:

"It's gonna be new. It's also daunting because it's new territory, it's a new experience, and will be a challenge. But, you know, I love challenge."

"I expect it to be massively different. I mean, the two teams I've been with have been British teams. So I'm going into a completely different culture in Italy."

2009 World Champion Jenson Button suggested that cultural differences are a bigger challenge than they might seem. Hamilton will also need to compete against Italian-speaking Charles Leclerc, who is already well-established in the team.

The 39-year-old pointed out he expects the behavior within and atmosphere within the team to also be completely different, as he added:

"If you think about us Brits, we’re very quiet and more calm when you have success, when you have difficult days, everyone’s kind of more chilled out whereas Italians are much more emotional."

"It's a much different culture. I don't truly know what to expect but I have raced in Italy, so I expect it to be a huge amount different but special and unique in some ways."