Lewis Hamilton is joining Ferrari from Mercedes next season; the Italian team have shown strong form during the latter stages of their 2024 campaign; F1 returns with Las Vegas GP on November 22-24
Wednesday 13 November 2024 08:21, UK
Lewis Hamilton says watching Ferrari and McLaren overhaul Red Bull in the Constructors' Championship has been "quite incredible" ahead of his move to the Italian team next season.
Red Bull appeared to be set to maintain their domination of the past two seasons when Max Verstappen won four of the first five races of 2024, with team-mate Sergio Perez sealing one-twos in three of them and a double podium in the other.
While Verstappen has driven brilliantly to move to the brink of claiming a fourth successive drivers' title, with the Dutchman's victory last time out in Brazil ending a 10-race winless streak for the team, Red Bull's dominance has been emphatically ended.
Going into the final three rounds of the season, McLaren top the constructors' standings from Ferrari by 36 points, with Red Bull a further 13 points adrift in third.
Before Verstappen's victory at Interlagos, Ferrari had claimed back-to-back wins in the United States and Mexico, with that form boosting hopes they can provide Hamilton with a 2025 car that would enable him to contend for a record eighth drivers' title.
"I'm very interested in my future, of course," said Hamilton, who has struggled since the summer break in his 12th and final season with Mercedes. "And so, in that respect, keeping an eye, yeah. Watching everything that happens."
Asked if he had been encouraged by Ferrari's performances, Hamilton said: "Of course.
"If you look at somewhere like maybe China already, the Red Bull was like a second ahead. And it's been quite incredible to see the McLaren rise and then the Ferrari in the last few races, to see their progress and just trying to keep an eye on everyone's car and what they're changing and what they're adding.
"You know, we all watch the video, all the drivers, we all watch the onboard laps and we're always trying to see where we can gain time. And there's some cars that just react differently and better or worse in certain areas.
"And you're trying to figure out how you can find that within either your balance or get the team to develop the car in that direction."
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says he "likes" that Hamilton chose to leave the team to join Ferrari as it prevented him from having to get rid of the seven-time world champion at a later date.
Hamilton stunned the sporting world on the eve of the 2024 season by confirming it would be his last with Mercedes as he signed a multi-year deal to join the iconic Italian squad.
Wolff admitted at the time that he had been blindsided by the move - which will bring to an end the most successful driver-team partnership in the sport's history - but says concerns over Hamilton's "shelf life" meant the prospect of having to force the Briton out of the team was already on his mind.
Wolff's comments have been reported in Mercedes' new all-access book Inside Mercedes F1: Life in the Fast Lane, which followed the team through their turbulent 2023 campaign and the start of 2024.
"I absolutely had it on my radar that Lewis would go," Wolff told the book's author Matt Whyman.
"I just couldn't understand why he'd change to another team before we knew if we were going to be competitive.
"It also didn't give me any time to react, I had to emergency call our partners, and I possibly missed out on negotiating with other drivers who had signed contracts a few weeks earlier like Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris.
"[But] I like the situation. It helps us because it avoids the moment where we need to tell the sport's most iconic driver that we want to stop."
Formula 1 returns with the Las Vegas Grand Prix on November 22-24, live on Sky Sports F1 where Max Verstappen could seal the championship. Get Sky Sports F1 to watch every race and more live
