Vasseur Gives Reason Behind Strange Timing In Announcement Of Deal With Lewis Hamilton

Frederic Vasseur elaborated on why the announcement of Lewis Hamilton's new contract came with such strange timing.

The announcement of Lewis Hamilton's move from Mercedes to Ferrari was mega-surprising to most people in and outside of Formula 1.

In 2024, the 39-year-old will break a record with Mercedes for the longest driver-team collaboration in the history of the sport. Everyone believed he would retire with Mercedes and transition into the role of the brand ambassador.

Toto Wolff asserted he would love to collaborate with Hamilton even beyond retirement. Moreover, even the Briton himself mentioned multiple times he has no other plans than to finish his career with Silver Arrows.

Basically, the notion was that Hamilton and Mercedes operate as one, and no one can change that. That is one of the two primary reasons why the move was a surprise.

However, even those who expected the move or somehow knew about it ahead were still surprised by the timing of the contract signing and the official announcement.

Hamilton is supposed to start driving for Ferrari in 2025. This means there is still one full season that the driver has to finish with Mercedes, and that is a bit of an awkward situation for the team, for strategic reasons, and for the team's marketing.

The same goes for Ferrari, which announced the replacement of Carlos Sainz, but the Italian team still has to complete the 2024 season with the 29-year-old first.

So why this strange timing? The team principal of Scuderia Ferrari, Fred Vasseur, said, according to BBC, that the reason behind this early announcement was so that his team would have "no distraction" for the upcoming season.

By distraction, the team principal might have meant speculations in relation to the second seat in the Ferrari. Now that it is clear who will be driving for the team in the future, the Frenchman hopes to fully concentrate on the season ahead.