JONATHAN McEVOY: Lewis Hamilton at all times dreamed of Ferrari

Ferrari. It is a nagging obsession that has ambushed Lewis Hamilton’s consciousness his complete life.

As the seven-time world champion indicators for the planet’s most well-known and profitable Formula One staff, my thoughts turns again to when he was about to embark on his front-rank profession, to when his father Anthony was his supervisor, confidant and guardian of his ideas.

‘One day,’ Anthony informed me early in 2007 in an virtually conspiratorial whisper, even perhaps earlier than Lewis had turned a wheel in grand prix fight, ‘I see Lewis driving for Ferrari one day. That’s the place he’ll find yourself earlier than he’s completed.’

Over the years chronicling Hamilton’s outstanding profession, Mail Sport has intermittently returned to the hyperlink. Before the British Grand Prix a couple of years in the past, we reported how he had divulged to a pal that Ferrari had as soon as extra invaded the forefront of his thoughts. Mercedes reacted angrily to the suggestion, telling anybody who inquired that I didn’t know any pals of their star driver. Au contraire.

And solely final May, greater than eight months in the past, I reported the story that blossomed into actuality over the previous 24 hours, particularly that Hamilton was being courted by Ferrari, and that his head was liable to be turned. It has been now, and he’ll be a part of them, most likely from 2025, topic to affirmation this night.

On the again web page then we accurately reported contact between Hamilton and Ferrari president John Elkann, 47-year-old favoured grandson of Gianni Agnelli, often called L’Avvocato (‘The Lawyer’), who wants no introduction to extra seasoned readers for he was as the top of Fiat, when it managed greater than 4 per cent of Italy’s GDP. He was the richest man in post-war Italy and its most vital determine.

Those conversations came about forward of the Monaco Grand Prix, and continued on the occasion itself. Elkann and Hamilton are pals. They have one another’s telephone quantity and made use of this channel over the previous few months as Hamilton havered over whether or not to remain at Mercedes – the protracted contract negotiations over this have been, to cite Churchill, a riddle wrapped in a thriller inside an enigma. The saga dragged on and on, guarantees of a swift decision coming and going.

We acknowledged then that Ferrari have been ready to supply Hamilton £40million to hitch them. It was true, and now it’s borne out with the Italians providing him roughly that, maybe extra as soon as bonuses are added on, to drive for them.

At the time, within the cramped press convention room above Monaco’s absurdly glistening harbour, Hamilton dismissed our revelation because the product of a fertile creativeness. ‘Well, there’s a sure particular person on this room who’s written (that story),’ he mentioned, smiling as a result of he was delighted on the flattering affiliation with a critical suitor to rival Mercedes’ professed want to maintain him on.

He added: ‘Maybe last weekend, with the race being cancelled (at Imola, due to flooding), he just got bored and started to… ha!’

I recorded on the time that Lewis claims by no means to comply with the press, but he appears to take action at any time when it issues to him. I used to be glad at the very least to have the ability to depend on one avid reader.

Anyway, Hamilton signed a brand new deal, two years for a complete of £100m to stay with the Silver Arrows. Ferrari’s overtures had been rejected. For then, at any fee. He swore allegiance to his boss Toto Wolff, every of them making a giant deal of the closeness of their relationship. ‘Friends,’ mentioned Wolff, little understanding what lay in retailer.

I used to be by no means satisfied by this projected dynamic. Lewis – and I don’t imply this as criticism however as recognition of a high competitor within the brutal enterprise of elite sport – is as onerous as nails, as cussed as a crimson wine stain.

His loyalty extends elastically, and he’s a brilliantly loving brother to Nicolas, and is in some ways a caring soul. But elastic can snap and it was liable to take action in his case when his greatest pursuits have been pulling in the wrong way.

He exhibited this ruthless trait greater than a decade in the past when he left McLaren for Mercedes. He walked out on Ron Dennis, who had funded and nurtured his boyhood genius. This sample of behaviour was an apparent warning signal to Mercedes, however they blithely believed they knew Lewis too nicely – that their relationship was imperishable. I warned them that if Lewis determined to depart they have been liable to be the final ones to know. As Dennis had been all these years in the past.

What Hamilton desires to the purpose of distraction is to win an eighth world championship. That crucial, I imagine, has conjoined along with his emotional pull in the direction of Ferrari, having pushed highway vehicles off the forecourt of their dealership in Beverly Hills. All boys, if the woke battalions will forgive me, love a crimson automotive.

Yes, he signed as much as Mercedes final August however he inbuilt an ‘out’ clause for the top of 2024 – a loophole that may permit him to flee if, because it transpired, he didn’t imagine Mercedes might present the extent of equipment essential to take him to that all-important, but elusive, title cherry.

A telling comment got here after the ultimate embarrassing race in Abu Dhabi when he wrote off Mercedes’ probabilities for the following two seasons. The reality is that they haven’t begun to grasp the important substances of the ground-effect laws launched in 2022. There was the bouncing automotive, an unpredictable weapon. Upgrade packages have been false dawns – one in every of which got here, maybe pertinent to his consideration of a transfer elsewhere, at Monaco.

The elementary problem is mastering the vortices generated below the automotive. Mercedes appeared no nearer to cracking the crossword.

All the whereas, his supposed mentor, Mr Wolff, was dwelling overseas in Monaco. I’m blissful to face corrected, however I don’t suppose any Formula One staff principal, profitable or in any other case, has primarily based himself so removed from his manufacturing unit: a journey by highway to Nice, a flight from there to Blighty. And, below tax legislation, 80 days most on this nation. This when the boss man is often first in, final out. In distinction, Christian Horner drives from house in North London to Red Bull’s manufacturing unit in Milton Keynes each day, coping with calls by way of Bluetooth on his early morning/mid-evening commutes.

That detachment will need to have performed into Lewis’s reasoning. By the way in which, Enzo Ferrari, the founding father of his eponymous staff, barely left Maranello to journey wherever – ‘a prisoner in his own myth’, as Enzo’s chosen successor Luca di Montezemolo as soon as described him to me.

Wolff was his personal worst enemy as occasions. He wrote off the automotive on the eve of the season, saying it wanted a complete revamp after it was six-tenths of a second off the tempo in qualifying for the primary race in Bahrain final March. What this did for morale is straightforward to grasp. It crushed it.

For Hamilton, who turned 39 final month, the clock is ticking. He would possibly as nicely gamble on a transfer, nothing to lose, even when Ferrari are hardly a racing certainty. Their staff principal, Fred Vasseur – mockingly a pal of Wolff to the extent they have been as soon as housemates in Oxford – is hardly a convincing chief. He laughs via press conferences, hardly exuding authority. He additionally flatly denied the Hamilton-Ferrari talks in May. Shame on him.

However, Hamilton’s arrival is just not remotely Vasseur’s doing. It is Elkann’s. As somebody remarked on Thursday: ‘Elkann holds all the reins of power.’

If it’s clear what potential benefits there are for Hamilton, however what about for Ferrari?

On a sporting entrance, solely presumably some. Hamilton’s expertise is obvious. A complete of 103 wins attest to that, plus a myriad of fantastic recollections. His expertise might not be as iridescent as at his peak, however he’s nonetheless a blinding potential and, in the proper automotive, has the race craft, expertise and dedication to win one other championship. 

He can also be more likely to be rejuvenated in a brand new surroundings, and solely in the previous couple of weeks has marginalised his commercially minded adviser Penni Thow to carry again outdated pal and former British Formula Three champion Marc Hynes to be at his aspect, as if indicating he desires to pay attention on-track quite than off it.

But having two star performers – Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, simply signed up on a £35m-a-year deal till 2029 – both aspect of the identical storage is just not essentially supreme. Will they not take factors off one another? That is just not often the Ferrari modus operandi. They historically again a No 1 and a supportive Jeeves.

In phrases of glamour and headlines and intrigue, nonetheless, the mix of the growing old king and the younger prince in harness is a sexy one. Formula One’s avaricious American house owners, Liberty Media, couldn’t have scripted it higher on Netflix.

As for many who believed the false denials of our unique story, I need to not gloat. I’ll merely say I used to be working at a tactical benefit: I don’t imagine a phrase anybody in F1 says except I’m offered with concrete proof on the contrary.