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He did not say it explicitly, but the implication was clear – Max Verstappen thinks Ferrari made a mistake by signing Lewis Hamilton. The Scuderia tried for many years to convince the Brit to leave Mercedes and move to Maranello and they finally succeeded over the winter of 2023-24. Hamilton told Toto Wolff he was leaving at the end of the year and, in early 2025, broke the internet by rocking up outside Ferrari's famous factory with that iconic photo of him wearing a long black overcoat in front of a gleaming red Ferrari F40.
If only Hamilton's record on track for the Scuderia could have such an impact. This second season has undoubtedly been better than the first but, then again, that isn't saying much – there really was so little to write home about from his first 12 months with the team.
This year threatened to be a special one as the first half of the season went on. Ferrari made a decent start and felt they had the best car on the grid, and they were right. The engine left them unable to compete with Mercedes at times, but the baseline was strong.
Hamilton finally got his first Sunday victory in red, at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, while team-mate Charles Leclerc won at Silverstone a few weeks later. It looked for all the world as though Ferrari were on the verge of a breakthrough.
But they have failed to kick on. Engine upgrades have not had the desired effect and so that remains their big weakness. That, and their continuous operational fragility: an ongoing stream of strategy blunders and communication failure.
And then there is their other problem, the one that was always going to come to the fore as soon as Ferrari got themselves in a position to win races. Hamilton and Leclerc get along and neither of them were ever going to jeopardise that when there wasn't really anything at stake. Add the opportunity for glory into the mix, however, and everything changes.
So it proved in Mexico City earlier this month. Hamilton on pole, for the first time as a Ferrari driver, and Leclerc third on the grid, up to second by the first corner. Ferrari were first and second on a circuit where overtaking is difficult and so only an implosion was going to deny them the win.
But along came said implosion. Leclerc and Hamilton fought too hard for the lead, the former went off track and got a penalty and Verstappen took full advantage, getting between the two Ferraris and inheriting the lead when Leclerc served that punishment. He went on to win. The Ferrari drivers went on to point fingers at one another.
It has been resolved, for now, through private talks overseen by team principal Frederic Vasseur but, let's be honest, it will happen again. Leclerc has been at Ferrari for years, signed a new long-term contract earlier this year and is the team's long-term future. Hamilton may be approaching his 42nd birthday, but he is still a seven-time world champion and won't ever accept sidekick status.
Having two drivers who think they should be number one is hardly ever a good idea. Verstappen would never accept it at Red Bull and has now said he wouldn't have done it to Leclerc if he was in charge at Ferrari. "If I was a team principal, I'd never get two number one drivers, because then you get things like this," he said.
And he's right. Signing Hamilton was a brilliant commercial move – Ferrari have made an enormous amount of money through a rise in their stock price and also the sponsorships they have attracted by virtue of having F1's most successful driver ever on board.
That is important to the team and the wider Ferrari company, but the real desire is to get back on top of the F1 world. The Scuderia is approaching 20 years since one of their drivers last became champion: Kimi Raikkonen back in 2007.
Even if they get their car and engine right for next year, Hamilton and Leclerc could still bring it all crashing down for the Scuderia through their own personal desires.
Big moments. Packed grandstands. A championship battle that’s heating up.
When the Formula 1 season delivers like this, watching from home just isn’t the same as being there when the lights go out.
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