Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur says Lewis Hamilton will need to lean on his experience as he is faced with a challenging stint to be fully prepared for his debut with the team in 2025.
Hamilton will join Ferrari next season after bringing his time with Mercedes to an end, marking only the second team move of his Formula 1 career and the first time he will race outside of a Mercedes-powered team. With pre-season testing beginning on Feb. 26 and Ferrari launching its 2025 car a week earlier, Vasseur says there’s only a small window for Hamilton become embedded within the Scuderia.
“It’s always a challenge, starting from the beginning of January until the launch of the season on the 18th of February in London, and we will do the [2024 car] launch the 19th in Maranello,” Vasseur said. “It means it’s critical that you have only six weeks — it’s not easy. But he’s also coming with his own experience — he’s not Rookie of the Year — so I’m not worried at all about this.
“It’s also the continuity of the previous regulations and that means we have some reference. I’m not worried, but it’s true that it’s a challenge. If you imagine that you could go to Bahrain and have a sandstorm, as we had a couple of years ago, it’s tough, but it’s tough for everybody on the grid. We know that we have only three days there.”
Ferrari plans on running Hamilton during some testing of previous car (TPC) days, but a firm date for a first outing has not been set due to uncertainty over the weather in January. Vasseur says there will be no specific public welcoming event for the seven-time world champion, such is the need to spend time preparing for the opening rounds.
“We have to be focused on the season,” he said. “As we said before, it will be a very tight period between the first day and launch — it’s a matter of weeks and I want to have everybody focus on performance.
“It means that we will have the launch of the championship, we will have the launch of the car. For me, it’s already two events, and it’s far too much! I want to be focused on development, performance and not to do the show.”
