Hamiltons Ferrari gamble isnt a gamble at all... This is 100% Hamiltons last F1 team move. He wants to go out a legend. If it doesnt work out too great for him, well he still exists a legend. There is no gamble.
Yes Hamilton may well have still been heading that way which would have been billed as “doing a Schumacher” even if they looked like they do now several months ago.
People were questioning Lewis move from McLaren to Mercedes. And Lewis proved to the people that his move was right . McLaren was very quick in 2012 , Probably fastest at some tracks . So I think Lewis did the right move .
No team is a guaranteed winner but after a decade driving G-wagons getting access to demo-drive Niki Lauda's historic F1 cars and having a limited edition Hamilton Edition Ferrari as your company car is going to be really, really nice. It's good on both sides because Ferrari will also make millions off the deal.
I mean Lewis already is Ferrari VIP customer. He owned(? Owns? I forgot whether he still had one or not) a LaFerrari. Rosso Corsa, black wheels, body-coloured roof (which is a rare option).
Yep. Merc basically pissed Lewis off with their 1+1 deal & lack of future commitment to a ambassdorial role. All for a guy who's been Merc linked since he was 13, went ride or die for the brand, always reped them in key markets like USA even before DTS. Not surprised Lewis left for Ferrari where he feels appreciated.
Lewis is legendary, whether the "gamble" works or not. He's just jumped to the top of Ferrari VIP, and will have access to all the greatest last hurrah road cars before they all become electric. He knows what he's doing.
Hamilton moving to Ferrari will make absolutely no difference to Ferrari's performance. Their issues are related to everything but drivers. Lewis can't do much if he's sitting behind Leclrec in the pitlane from a damp to dry conditions in Silverstone
People are really naive. Hamilton and Ferrari are a match not because of a possible championship but because of brand power. There is no driver now who is as brandable as Lewis and Ferrari is more of a brand then any other company, its the iPhone of cars even though they haven’t won a championship for years. Their union is a commercial success without even the championship.
Re: 2026 rules… F1 ALWAYS does this. - Just leave things alone, develop sustainable fuels so we can have proper engines again, lighten the cars and make them smaller.
Certainly smaller lighter cars increase the actual racing and encourages overtaking. If you doubt this watch some of the Historic F1 car races, they are real historic F1 cars or accurate reproductions, worth a small fortune and yet they still race hard and fast, some of those cars are running better now than they did when they were cutting edge.
@@MuhammadNiz007 - oh no… 5 years. - mate, I’ve been watching F1 for over 30. I’d happily wait 5 years with steady regs and closer racing before changing the regs again.
Only 200 million yeah because that is cheap. lol The anti dilution fee is a farce within itself to show people that F1 is now more like a cartel run shop since Liberty Media takeover.
Thanks for picking up my question! I didn't think about the astronomical valuation of Alpine, and how the competition among new entries to enter F1 will push the value even higher. Definitely makes sense.
I'm a Farrari fan but if they didn't win with Alonso and Vettel I don't know how much more of a difference can Hamilton do. It goes beyond the driver or any single person.
Exactly. A driver is not the person to design the aero or engine or restructure THE ENTIRE TEAM…. Ferrari is Ferrari….and will be Ferrari when LH is there. They know he won’t stay long. It won’t be LH team…
Idk when Ferrari become a retirement home but I don't think anyone made this move for the competition. Ferrari wants the marketing and Lewis wants to retire in red as an ambassador.
I cannot name a single driver that joined Ferrari as a retirement home. Not one. Ferrari, more so than any team on the grid, demands performance. Their fans more so. Why do you think Vettel lost his shit as he struggled to beat Hamilton and win a championship? The pressure is everywhere in that team and there is nowhere to hide. Definitely not a retirement package from Ferrari's side and certainly not Lewis either. Marketing? Ferrari????
@brattpack 😂😂 they only demand it from their drivers apparently. "More than any other team" you're tripping. Their strategy, pit stops etc. sucks ass. There are not the most demanding team by any stretch of the imagination, stops with these jokes lmao 😂😂
@@barrymitchell1488 I mean Kimi was so bad his last year or two at Ferrari, he basically could have retired there. Alfa romeo offered him a fat paycheck to drive at the back of the grid, so he took it. Seb was also never really the same after Ferrari...he also could have retired.
the usual crap from this lot mate. its about pumping out content not about quality content. 3 talking heads, with basically nothing of substance to say
Would love another episode more about the 2026 regulations even getting Gary Anderson in to help out and offer more of his perspective, that would be awesome
Well this is a middle ground (video length wise) of a typical The Race video and the podcast vids. Will I watch the whole 32 minute production of this? Yes!
4:45 we’re talking about Charles Leclerc correct? The guy who will have been in Formula 1 for double digit years when teammates with Lewis? This is a race winning car, and they are both race winners. Nothing about that suggests they will get on. That’s like saying button would mentor Lewis at McLaren. You don’t need a world title to be called an elite driver. I think Leclerc proves that and it’s his team. They would have spoken to him before signing Lewis surely. I’m not meaning it’ll for sure get hostile though I do think it will be spicy, but we already did this exact thing AND Leclerc was a near rookie, non race winner with a 4x world champion. Remember how that went? AND it wasn’t even Leclerc’s team. How do you think this is going to go now when Leclerc has significantly more favor and performance track record? The only time a true mentor - pupil relationship occurred atleast the most recent IMO amongst elite drivers in a winning car is Cevert / Stewart. And that was only bc François was so green and Jackie won almost every single race he started in 71. And also Francois embraced it stating “jackie did all my education”. That will not be Lewis and Charles. I’m not so sure Lewis would dish out help if he’s losing - nor would Charles accept it if he was losing I’d wager. Moreover if Charles is beating Lewis, what do you think he’s “mentoring” Charles on exactly? The only reason this won’t be too intense is bc I doubt the car will allow it. If Ferrari is in title contention, this won’t end well, how could it?
That last question is extremely interesting and leave MB in a precarious position. Russell, most would agree, is a potential world champion, given he has the proper machinery and he's more than shown he has the talent. Antonelli is a gamble, at least initially and even in his junior career isn't as good as Russell was in his. Verstappen though really needs no explanation. He is the human embodiment of a racing machine and lives and breaths racing and adapts to any car he drives in a ridiculously quick period of time so I have no doubt he will adapt to a MB faster than anyone else so I don't blame Toto for holding out hope, as little as it may be, that he can poach Verstappen away from RB for next year. The remainder of this season though will be very telling whether that's a possibility or not. If RB continues to flounder and not able to regain the clear advantage as they've had before then that could frustrate Verstappen to make a drastic move to MB and of course in turn MB will have to ideally beat RB on merit the rest of this season to solidify in Verstappen that RB really have lost their way and their edge and maybe the move to MB is necessary.
I don't believe the off track drama at Red Bull is not bothering Verstappen, he's just doing a good job not letting it not interfere too much in his performance. He chooses to keep his mouth shut in the press and don't through any oil on the fire publicly.
Not sure Honda will want to give away their secrets to another engine manufacturer, especially one they would be in direct competition with given that caddy just want to re-badge in the first few years.
@@ralphhathaway-coley5460 Honda and GM already share tech on the IndyCar circuit as part of that racing series' engines, and the new hybrid engines built for the series was a collaborative effort between the two companies.
@@NewtypeCommander Okay, cheers for that, I do not know anything about Indycar (well I guess that is obvious 😄) That could put a different gloss on things, as GM actually producing a total home grown engine would be a great thing, the more the merrier. Though historically the F1 era when everyone ran the Ford DFV engine was one of the classic times for F1 racing. Thanks for the info.
A video like this makes me wish we had the podcasts in video form. I can understand it being easier during a break instead of being on the road though.
Nobody needs Andretti, a new backmarker team. They can’t even fight in the Indycar spec series for the championship 😂 let alone DESIGN, MANUFACTURE a full 2026 reg F1 car and engine 😂😂😂😂 Your delusions are funny. Andretti had years ago the opportunity to to buy other F1 teams like Minardi or Force India. He didn’t. And now F1 is booming he suddenly wants in cheap with only 200million 😂 Andretti is no name for the international F1 world. Only Americans think the Andretti name is ‘big’. Its not.
if there was a request from Max’s side then there is nothing George can do, but being a free agent in 2025 is a difficult situation to be in (for some reason media still did not notice that 2 drivers may find themselves in this situation next year). Carlos, at least, had options to chose from, where those 2 may not have this luxury.
@@pffyespfffinishing one’s career at Ferrari on a crazy deal financially when his current team wouldn’t oblige is an ACE MOVE. He has won everything there is to win in f1. Cap it off driving for Ferrari. What a way to go out. The perfect career most would wish for. Kudos Sir Lewis
People said back in 2012 the same way as it is with current (2024) season... 2014 reg will make one team dominant (which is true) but 2013 will be the best ever with how close 2012 season was.... and nope, Red Bull got it together and sweep that season. Same will happen in 2025 as well.
With more races on the calendar and team fatigue an issue, do you think that teams should now have three driver teams. The junior driver should complete at least three full F1 races in the season ? Mandatory pit stops are once again raising to the top of the agenda. Should the three races of Monaco, Singapore and Monza have three mandatory pits stops to allow overtaking ? Will Vandorne replace sargent for the rest of 2024 ? .
Seeing as Andretti were rumoured to be a Renault customer, did the refusual of Andretti, and the loss of the income from that cause the closure of Renaults engine program?
No Andretti let the deal with Renault fall through. Andretti didn’t uphold the negotiated date of the deal. And no Renault Engine program IS NOT THE SAME as Alpine racing team program… separate entities remember. No, Renault can’t get the engine competitive. Has always been their issue, even in the times they supplies Toro Rosso/RBR…. Their engine development itself is the issue. And the ALPINE team thus have an engine that doesn’t give them true competitive power…. Which costs the Alpine team points and thus money.
@@Redlingstein i think you missed the point. I wasnt talking about Alpline. I was talking about the rumoured end of the renault engine program. Renault dont have customers. Andretti were rumoured to be a customer, if FOM wasnt breaking the various antitrust laws in the EU (and probably the USA as well). That would be a good chunk of the costs of running the program covered, as well as the potential of a parts deal a la ferrari/mercedes and hass/aston martin. Money renault xould have used to reduce the spend on the F1 program at viry-chatillion, or even invested in improving the program..
Hamilton's move was his only move. Mercedes were pushing him out and were basically gonna treat him like they did Bottas until they got Max. Lewis decided, fuck that and got amazing financial deal with Ferrari.
The battle between LeClerc and Hamilton, like the battle between Russell and Hamilton, will only matter if they're battling for P1 in the championship. It won't really matter otherwise to them and they'll get along just fine.
years on from his relationship split with his work wife? Likened to his head space after the shirtslinger split. A new challenge with Ferrai is a re-centering of focus, new goals with new friendships and rivalries. The best could be yet to come!
Don’t mistake all the years of Mercedes winning for Mercedes dominance. Last year’s Red Bull was the most dominant car in F1 history. The dominance Red Bull held for the past two years, Mercedes only really had for 4 of its winning years (2014-16, 2020).
Your little speech right before "I'd just like an owner that puts sporting ambition first" was fantastic and perfectly politic. Didn't throw Stroll under the bus but didn't deny how we all feel, either. Because we all essentially want the best 20 drivers in the world to be the 20 drivers racing, as much as possible. And hell, I'd say add 3 teams and more races. I'd watch every week. But we trade that fan loyalty for top quality. And when it starts to feel like "This is the best the world has?" people start to get cynical.
*5 months before Lewis even touches his Ferrari race suit, nearly half the season left to go* TheRace: “After watching Mercedes massively improve over the first half the season and 5 months before Lewis goes to Ferrari, it’s clear Lewis made a massive mistake.” Wow guys what could make you think that lol
For the 2026 rules: It's extremely unlikely any of the competitors to agree for such a major change this close to 2026 as years of planning will go down the drain, but, F1's inherent problem is that it cannot have 20 cars be within a tenth of a second, not just because of the drivers but because you can't have 10 different teams have 10 different concepts and all of them being closely matched. If the top teams have hit the proverbial technical ceiling, with different interpretations of the RB18/19 concepts then the sport can suddenly become much more interesting. More extreme strategies (Russell 1 stop) may be needed to win a race, it may be worth having a baseline car that is say 2 tenths faster than last year's and using the budget cap money to bring actual experimental parts to the track, just like Merc and Ferrari were doing in the pre-budget cap era. If the next rule change is far away, implement small changes in key performance areas, remember 2020-2021 floor change?
10:36 I'd feel bad if Andretti were to but the team because I imagine it would be just to get the entry and shutdown the current facilities and let go of many of the personnel to keep their plan so I'm not sure if makes sense, nor would accomplish what people are thinking would happen if Andretti bought Renault
It is impossible to get in, they moved the goalposts to keep Andretti out. F1 is moving to a franchise system, 10 slots, the only way in is to buy in. Its wrong, its just greed. I'm not sold on the 26 regs. Its a bunch of compromises that aren't really going in any direction. The weights not coming down enough, still too large. Piastri is absolutely going to be number one at McLaren. What you are seeing here is very similar to Ricciardo and Verstappen at Red Bull. Norris has been around for 6 seasons, so he's basically at or near his peak and the level isn't quite at the top of tree, Piastri has way more growth to come.
One thing about the constructors battle that wasn't mentioned was the driver paring. I think that gives Ferrari an advantage. And Lewis going to Ferrari is more about Lewis having an idea of how long he wants to race and having security with a factory team on the grid. The money aint bad either lol. He's already won everything. Knocking his career for not winning an 8th title when most drivers dont even have 1 race win is unfair. I think its an exciting move and sometimes we all need some new scenery
I’m quite surprised, in a way, that with Ford looking to be an Engine supplier in 2026, and Alpine potentially being up for sale, that there’s no talk of Ford potentially buying them. Obviously there would be some baggage, but they could acquire the team entry and move the operation over to the U.K. and run it from there. It would be the kind of big, brash, ballsy move that would attract some ambitious people within F1 to move there. Adrian Newey is leaving Red Bull, imagine if Ford threw a blank chequebook at him, told him to go wild, gave him completely free reign of the design philosophy of the car and then brought in other well respected names from other teams to run it. The only kind of hard part would be drivers as there aren’t many out of contract in 2026
i think with the 76% of Alpine value of around 600,000,000 would not write off rodin Buyout of AlphaTauri F1 team ‘commercially unviable’, says Rodin founder “I had a lot of talks with Williams about buying Williams - saw all the numbers and sat through presentations and made them an offer and everything - and I’ve had a few guys talking about other teams from time to time. “I would [buy a team] if I thought there was a viable route, but paying $800-900million for [AlphaTauri] would probably not be considered commercially viable. But you know, just got to see if there’s possibilities.
I'm curious about how drivers and team members going to other teams is dealt with from a "secrets" or knowledge perspective. How much does Hamilton know about Mercedes that he can bring to Ferrari to help them? How much can someone like a team principal bring to another team in the same respect?
Some comment in a past video: "I can't believe how you can make 30 seconds of content into a 8 minute video" The Race: "Shut up, here's half an hour of that"
Very interesting to consider F1's position that Renault/Alpine somehow "adds value" where Andretti/GM doesn't. As we say in the States, "the math ain't mathin'" with that one.
Alpine is driving in F1 for MANY YEARS already, through the difficult F1 years to now. Andretti wants in now F1 is booming, with only 200million 😂😂😂 Alpine has been winning races, podiums, over the years. Had incredible drivers. Alpine has been driving top 10 in Quali’s and races these last seasons!! Alpine is doing fine. Andretti cant even fight for the Indycar championship 😂 and that’s a spec series. And you expect Andretti to be able to design and manufacture a competitive F1 car from scratch all by themselves AND A COMPETITIVE ENGINE for the NEW 2026 regs too? 😂😂😂 GM doesn’t even want to burn their fingers on that 😂 they pulled out of the Andretti proposal to F1 and said they don’t want to supply ANY ENGINE TILL 2028… You Americans HAVE NO CLUE abt CONSTRUCTORS CHAMPIONSHIP that is F1 😂😂😂😂😂
Why are we talking about Hamilton and Leclerc? They're yesterday's drivers. Lance is going to be DWC with Newey moving to Force Israel. Alonso will be the new Perez.
Hamilton-Ferrari will go down as just another one of many of the failed Ferrari attempts in modern F1 history. I'm no Hamilton fan, but what on earth ever convinced him to go there.
Hamilton has said he's wanted to race for Ferrari. He's at the end of his career and wants to finish it there. He's had a very fortunate career to never get dropped to a lower team like a lot of veterans get.
