Former world champions have switched to the Scuderia before but only Fangio and Schumacher have prospered at Maranello
Enzo Ferrari liked his English drivers. In 1958 the bow-tied Mike Hawthorn became the team’s third world champion. John Surtees won the title in 1964, ending a period of internal turmoil. When Ferrari died in 1988, aged 90, he had just signed up Nigel Mansell for the following season. He liked Mansell’s aggression, his competitive spirit. He would surely have appreciated Lewis Hamilton, too.
As Hamilton pointed out while the ground was still shaking from Thursday’s sudden announcement that he will join the Scuderia Ferrari in 2025, he already knows about driving cars from Maranello. He has two of them in his garage in California. Next year he will take the relationship a step further, into the realm of every young racing driver’s dreams.