F1 YouTuber Josh Revell said he was unconvinced that Lewis Hamilton would find his mojo at Ferrari given his troubles in the past couple of seasons. The seven-time F1 world champion sent ripples across the motorsports community after he announced that he would be leaving Mercedes at the end of the 2024 season to join the Prancing Horse and pair up alongside Charles LeClerc.
The move was even more surprising as the British driver had signed a multi-year contract with the Brackley-based outfit in August 2023 after rejecting the advances from the Italian team.
After the initial excitement, there have been many question marks about the switch due to Lewis Hamilton’s visible struggles in his farewell season with the German team last year. Despite winning two races in Silverstone and Spa, the Brit was second best to his ex-teammate George Russell in both qualifying and the races.
While appearing on The Blatantly Biased Racing Podcast, Revell had trepidations regarding Lewis Hamilton’s move as he said:
“He’s[Lewis] not immortal, he is a human being like every other sportsperson in the world, every single one of them, no matter how great they are, has their decline,” Revell said. “I’m not buying into some of the excuses that were dished out over the last two-three years now. It’s like if you need everything to be perfect to win even the teammate battle, you’re going to the wrong f**king team.” (32:45 onwards)
Lewis Hamilton finished behind George Russell in the driver’s standings in two out of the three years that they were Mercedes teammates.
Ferrari team boss defends Lewis Hamilton ahead of his move to Maranello
Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur said he was “never worried” about Lewis Hamilton’s situation in the final few races of the year while citing the examples of his comeback drives in Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi.
Speaking to F1.com just before Christmas, the Frenchman reflected on Hamilton’s performances and said:
“He had very good races in Vegas, in Abu Dhabi [in 2024] and I was never, really, never, never, never worried about the situation,” Vasseur said. “I’m really convinced that it was the situation, and I don’t want to blame Lewis or Mercedes, but this situation, it’s not easy to manage and I can understand that if it’s not going very well, you can suffer [in] this relationship.”
“[All] was not very well in his mind – he was clear in Brazil about this, for example – but he also did very, very well on the last couple of events. I’m not worried at all.”
The 105-time race winner finished the 2024 season with 223 points to his name, which included five podiums, one more than George Russell. Meanwhile, the Italian team has invested heavily in bringing Lewis Hamilton to the fold in the hopes of returning to their glory days of the early 2000s.
Edited by Shirsh
