Lewis Hamilton will race for Ferrari next season having decided before the current campaign began that he wanted a fresh start away from long-time employers Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton will race for Ferrari next season having decided before the current campaign began that he wanted a fresh start away from long-time employers Mercedes Lewis Hamilton will race for Ferrari next season having decided before the current campaign began that he wanted a fresh start away from long-time employers Mercedes
The 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will bring down the curtain on more than just one single Formula 1 season.
It will also mark a final Mercedes appearance for Lewis Hamilton, who is leaving the team he joined in 2013. Next year, he will drive a car not powered by a Mercedes-Benz engine for the first time in his F1 career when he gets behind the wheel of a Ferrari.
Mirror Sport understands Mercedes are still figuring out the details of how exactly they will pay tribute to the seven-time F1 champion in Abu Dhabi. But the team has now revealed one part of their plans.
Fans will be offered the chance to have their names put on Hamilton’s car for that final race of his Mercedes career. Anyone is welcome to enter and 150 names will be selected at random before they are printed on the W15.
The draw opened at 9am UK time on Thursday, November 14 and can be accessed on the Mercedes F1 team website. It will end on Tuesday, November 26 at 23.59pm, so fans who want to take part will need to be quick.
Ferrari had hoped that they too would be able to field Hamilton in Abu Dhabi next month. While he was always going to be racing for Mercedes, the Brit’s new employer wanted him to get his first taste of Italian machinery at the post-season test which also takes place at the Yas Marina Circuit in the week following the season-ending event.
However, Hamilton will still be under contract with Mercedes at the time and there will be no possibility of an early release as there are other responsibilities he will need to fulfil before his time with the team officially comes to its end on December 31.
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Still, Hamilton will be able to get behind the wheel of a Ferrari F1 car long before he races one for the first time. The Scuderia plans to give him at least one test outing, most likely in their 2022 challenger and at their own Fiorano test facility, which is set to take place in January.
The run will help him to become familiar not only with how Ferrari F1 cars feel but also with how the team operates trackside. Hamilton has himself admitted that he knows only a few people who work for the Maranello squad and so he will need to build new relationships with engineers and mechanics from scratch.
Team principal Frederic Vasseur is confident that he will get quickly up to speed, though, and said: “I am not sure that he needs tons of hours of acclimatisation. He is experienced enough to be quick on the first day, or at least very soon. We will have one or two [testing previous cars] days, plus the test in Bahrain and that will be enough.”
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Mirror – Sport
