Beginning once more from Maranello
The principle purpose for Lewis Hamilton in his first yr as a Ferrari driver will clearly be to often return to the highest step of the rostrum, with a collection of victories that might enable the Englishman to safe his eighth world title. This achievement would set absolutely the document for many world championships gained by an F1 driver, as the previous Mercedes driver shares this document with Michael Schumacher, however it’ll definitely not be simple for #44.
The largest challenges
Along with his first expertise in pink, the person to beat stays the four-time reigning world champion Max Verstappen, together with one other former staff of Lewis Hamilton’s, McLaren, which has returned to the highest of the world within the Constructors’ Championship. There’s additionally one other issue producing curiosity forward of the season debut, this time associated to a attainable Ferrari derby between Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
Mutual assist
Nonetheless, somebody who doesn’t appear in any respect frightened about the opportunity of inside clashes is the previous Crew Principal of Haas, Günther Steiner, who in an interview with GPBlog believes that the partnership between Leclerc and Hamilton may be useful for each, particularly for #44: “In case you’re a superb driver at that stage, you need one of the best driver as a teammate as a result of they push you to carry out at your finest,” he mentioned. “Charles can study Lewis’s racing expertise—learn how to do issues, learn how to handle them—whereas Lewis can study from Charles about velocity, as a result of Charles is superb on a single lap. In case you get a set of information from a really quick man, it helps so much. You probably have a gradual teammate, his setup will likely be fully totally different. You probably have a quick teammate, you possibly can solely enhance, and Lewis has the expertise in Formulation 1. He makes only a few errors, and if he does, he all the time takes accountability.” – the previous staff principal identified.
Günther Steiner additionally understands the dissatisfaction Hamilton felt over the past season, which ended with two victories and three different podiums after a 2023 fully devoid of wins: “It’s like that for many drivers at that stage, particularly for Lewis, who has gained seven championships. You possibly can’t be pleased with simply scoring factors,” he concluded.