Opinion: Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc’s partnership at Scudaria Ferrari is the most emotional one in Formula 1’s History

IMPORTANT: This article contains important regarding the passing of several people. Continue at your own convenience.

1st February 2024-Rumours emerged of the 7 time world champion leaving the UK based Mercedes team to join the most famous team in the world: Scudaria Ferrari. Rumours like this have circulated for years. However, this one felt different: accredited journalists and news outlets started reporting it. This was happening. 

I remember hearing about it and being shell shocked, surprised at the move. Talking to people online, everyone was denying it. When it was announced that evening, everyone was so surprised. The most successful driver in F1 history across multiple eras of the sport, the most recognisable driver was leaving the Silver Arrows to join the prancing horse. 

While I have been watching the media covorage of Hamilton’s first few days at Maranello, I became overthrown with emotion and which I could not understand why. As I thought about it more and more, I realised how emotional this partnership and lineup genuinely is.

Of course, this meant that 3 into 2 didn’t go so sadly Carlos Sainz had to depart the legendary team to join Williams Racing. I don’t think Williams Racing, with all due respect, was the highest team on Sainz’ radar given the obviously vacant seat left by Hamilton at Mercedes or even the Red Bull seat of Sergio Perez which had a contract expiration at the end of 2024. Sadly, those pieces fell short for Sainz but there is one major positive to leave behind for Sainz: he did nothing wrong. Sometimes in life, things don’t work out for one reason or another. I don’t think Sainz has any bad blood at all with Hamilton, Leclerc, Vasseur or Ferrari. In fact, apart from Hamilton, Verstappen and Alonso, Sainz never would have left that seat. He left his mark at the team and I would never rule out a move back to Ferrari.

Back to Hamilton now and up until now, I didn’t think it was real. It felt like a F1 24 Career mode move with Hamilton to Ferrari, Leclerc to Aston Martin and Dino Beganovic to Mercedes.  Seeing the images of Hamilton in Italy, dressing head to toe in very fancy clothes (which I am jealous of) and impressively speaking Italian so naturally it shows that he wants to make this move work. By work, I of course mean Hamilton getting that 8th Drivers Championship title with Ferrari which I think it will happen. 

Personally, I am strong believer of “Everything happens for a reason” and when I cast my mind back to 2021 and to Abu Dhabi, I remember Lewis Hamilton and Anthony Hamilton (Lewis’ father) going up to Max Verstappen and Jos Verstappen (Max’s father) to shake their hands. That showed me what kind of person Hamilton is like. Despite all of his effort, and fighting so much, he lost by so little. The reason that event links up to “Everything happens for a reason” is if Hamilton won that title in 2021, he may have retired and never get to live out racing in red and for Ferrari. Of course, these are all what ifs and sure, Hamilton would more than likely before an 8th title over racing for Ferrari; but it feels like something good will come of this. 

I want to reflect on Charles Leclerc, Hamilton’s teammate for 2025 and beyond. Since I started watching Formula 1, stories of how drivers either came from nothing and built their way up or drivers who suffered grief and heartbreak and always attached and stayed with me. Charles’ story of losing his god father Jules Bianchi after a horrific crash in 2014 is one which still looms over not only Formula 1 but Leclerc as Bianchi told Ferrari to give his godson a chance. That is not the only tragedy Charles’ has faced in his life, however. Charles’ father, Herve Leclerc, passed away from an illness. Before his father passed, Leclerc told his father that he signed the contract to race in F1 which, at the time, was not true. Sadly, Charles told his father this as he knew he would not survive to see it come to reality. However, this was not the final grief Charles or the entire Formula 1 family would have suffered as sadly, in 2019, Antoine Hubert lost his life in a crash in Spa during a Formula 2 Sprint Race. Hubert passed away on the same day of the accident and Leclerc went on to take his debut win the following day.

I am sure you are wondering “Kieran, what does 2021 and Charles’ personal griefs have to do with Hamilton going to Ferrari?” Well, I am glad you asked! To circle back to the main point of this article, Formula 1 has not been easy for Leclerc or Hamilton. Performances, cars, emotional factors or just bad luck in general. While yes, this happens in general in F1, the loss of anyone, especially a relative or parent is something which can tug at your heartstrings so much. While Hamilton has both of his parents’ alive, he has had his fair share of emotional abuse while not directly at grief but in relation to racial comments which started since he was a young boy first getting into kart racing. While I, a white male, cannot begin to understand the emotional toll this could take on anyone, I do understand Charles’ pain of losing a relative. The emotional impact this can have on someone so close to you not knowing you’ve partnered with one of the best drivers ever seen in Formula 1 history truly makes this an emotional but inspirational era at the Maranello based team.

I cannot help but feel that this was written in the stars. A young, thriving driver who has been impacted by life’s punishment for love and a vetern of the sport who has had been to hell and back due to outside forces is one partnership which is willing to prove the critics wrong. 

As Enzo Ferrari once said: “If you can dream it, you can do it.”

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All Image Credit: Scudaria Ferrari’s Media Centre