IS THIS WHY HE DID IT?
Beyond the sheer allure of Ferrari and/or the sting of a 1+1 2023 contract extension revealing the timeline for Toto Wolff’s driver succession plan. Did Lewis Hamilton look at Mercedes’ initial design for its 2024 challenger, the W15, and conclude it wasn’t good enough to keep him around?
For this is now Mercedes’ predicament. Three times in a row at the start of this regulatory era, it has failed to produce a class-leading car in keeping with the iron-clad pedigree it established with seven drivers’ and eight constructors’ crowns between 2014 and 2021. And now Hamilton – its undisputed seven-pointed star – is departing. Possibly, disillusioned.
In the weeks that followed the shock announcement of his Ferrari deal from 2025 onwards, Hamilton talked up his love for the red team. But, impressively, at the same time he did a fine job defending and respecting his soon-to-be former squad, as you would expect of a sports star so versed in public message massaging.
As of the time of writing, that latter position has held. That’s even as he’s traversed the test and season-opening events in Bahrain, then sampled the W15 through the differing challenges of Jeddah and
