Hamilton to Ferrari already: why that couldn't be an option!
F1 News
- Ludo van Denderen
Lewis Hamilton surprised friend and foe last week by announcing that he would leave Mercedes after the upcoming season and move to Ferrari. Of course, Hamilton is a professional, and Mercedes is a very professional organisation, so no doubt both parties will manage to bring the long-standing partnership to an end in a good way.
The past has shown often enough - in every sport imaginable - that once separation is announced, the relationship between them changes. During the upcoming season, Hamilton will think about what will come at Ferrari. Should the performance with Mercedes not be as hoped, there will be stories in the media that the Brit is already focused on 2025 at Ferrari.
Why Mercedes did not send Hamilton away
In football, it happens more than regularly that a coach who leaves after a season is nevertheless thanked for his services. Mercedes chose not to move Hamilton on immediately. This is perfectly understandable, as so shortly before the start of the season, there would have been no one to fill the vacant gap: all the top drivers are fixed for 2024, and even the second tier of drivers are locked in.
Mercedes would be shooting themselves in the foot if Hamilton had been sidelined. Should the seven-time champion himself have had the illusion of breaking from his contract with immediate effect, he would have immediately known that team boss Toto Wolff would not let him go for practical reasons alone.
There is another, not entirely insignificant, reason why an immediate transition was impossible. Hamilton has too much technical knowledge about the W15, which Mercedes are starting the season with. In Formula 1, it is common practice for engineers and technical staff to spend months of mandatory time at home after employment with a team (known as gardening leave) before joining a competitor. This prevents teams from moving the most up-to-date information from one garage to another.
Hamilton gets different treatment
Of course, this is not possible for drivers. Yet F1 teams are doing everything possible to make a driver who will be transferred no wiser than necessary. Hamilton will experience not being invited to briefings relating to the 2025 (and beyond) car. Only information for the 2024 season will be shared with the veteran - and as little as possible, if at all possible. Mercedes doesn't want to risk trade secrets ending up in Maranello in early 2025.
The situation would probably have been different if Hamilton (in case he already had an ongoing contract at that time) had announced his switch well before the end of the previous season. In that case, Mercedes would still have had time to cut him off from the flow of information.