'It Is A Dream': Hamilton Elaborates On Drive Behind His Ferrari Move

Saturday, 24 February 2024 at 16:00

Updated at Saturday, 24 February 2024 at 17:42

During his first official press conference since the announcement, Lewis Hamilton elaborated on the reason for his move to Ferarri after the 2024 season.

The seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton already spoke about his move in an official statement from Mercedes following the announcement and on his social media as well.

But during a press conference, which was part of pre-season testing at Bahrain International Circuit, Hamilton elaborated on the reason why he made the decision to go race for the Prancing Horse.

"Of course, I think for every driver growing up, watching the history, watching Michael Schumacher in his prime, I think probably all of us sit in our garage and see the screen pop up, and you see the driver in the red cockpit, and you wonder what it would be like to be surrounded by the red."

Read also

Hamilton Confirms He Wouldn't Have Gone To Ferrari Without Team Principal Vasseur

Even though he has been with Mercedes (McLaren Mercedes in the beginning) for almost all of his career, Hamilton always dreamed of racing for the Italian team.

"You go to the Italian Grand Prix, and you see the sea of red Ferrari fans, and you can only stand in awe of that. It's a team that's not had huge success recently, since 2007, and I saw it as a huge challenge."

The 39-year-old already mentioned that it was his dream to drive for Ferrari, and Fernando Alonso couldn't help but taunt Hamilton as he suggested it wasn't his dream a few months ago.

Nevertheless, the Briton stands by his words as he elaborates that even when playing games when he was younger, he would always pick Schumacher in the red Ferrari car.

"Without a doubt, even as a kid, I used to play [on games] as Michael in that car, so it definitely is a dream, and I’m really, really excited about it."