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Twenty-eight years right into a profession strolling the System One paddock with a nostril for a narrative, Sky F1’s roving reporter Ted Kravitz digests the interior workings of the game and their protagonists higher than anybody. A few of it might be fiction, some could also be gossip and a few could also be reality. But when it got here to the most important switch within the historical past of F1, it was foreseen many moons in the past.
Locked in dialog on Sky Sports activities F1 after Lewis Hamilton’s fourth world championship in 2017, Kravitz is asked what the longer term holds for the Mercedes driver. His timing is a smidge out – he guessed three years, relatively than six – however he forecasted that Hamilton would wish to conclude his profession racing for Ferrari.
It might not appear the boldest prediction on the earth, however amid Mercedes’ sheer dominance on the time, all of it appeared a bit pie within the sky. Nevertheless, because the gargantuan hype builds surrounding Hamilton’s first public engagement in scarlet pink at F1 75 Live on Tuesday evening in London, Kravitz can’t assist however revisit his impressed second of foresight.
“I principally predicted Lewis transferring to Ferrari,” Kravitz tells The Unbiased. “It was a little bit of a guess on the time however it appeared that the lure of Ferrari and their significance within the sport… he at all times thought it might be very cool to be a Ferrari driver.
“He likes the model, he has among the highway vehicles which is at all times a assist. While you take a look at it now, it appears a pure factor to do. It’s put a spring in his step, hasn’t it? A spring within the step of F1, simply to see how he’s going to do too.
“This story would be the present that retains on giving this yr.”
The countdown to Hamilton’s Ferrari debut in Australia, lower than a month away, is on. Kravitz acknowledges that the fanfare surrounding this switch is unmatched; to return shut, you would need to go all the way in which again to Michael Schumacher’s transfer from Benetton to the prancing horse in 1996.
But Kravitz is insistent that Hamilton’s stint in Italy won’t be totally outlined by claiming a record-breaking eighth title. Because the 40-year-old enters his 18th season within the sport, Sky’s man-on-the-ground says the Brit has made “peace” with maybe not breaking the report he holds collectively with Schumacher.
“I don’t know whether or not he feels that he has to win something, actually,” Kravitz says.
“He’s obtained a yr, possibly two, if he’s nonetheless motivated and fast and having fun with it. I don’t even know if he must win an eighth, I simply assume he needs to offer account of himself and have some enjoyable.
“Possibly the 2026 laws will give him an edge. I don’t assume there’s any crucial to win this yr relatively than subsequent yr.
“He simply needs to make account of himself. I don’t assume his entire transfer to Ferrari depends on successful an eighth championship. I feel he’s made his peace with not successful an eighth when he had a chance to do it [in 2021].”
Hamilton’s first official Ferrari photograph in Janaury, posing in a putting black go well with in entrance of Enzo Ferrari’s home, grew to become the most-liked F1 post ever on Instagram, as he was launched to the game’s most fabled crew in Maranello. He has undergone personal exams in Fiorano and Barcelona within the month since – with a crash in Catalunya a number of weeks in the past nothing greater than a blip – whereas he’ll first drive the 2025 SF-25 after Ferrari’s own launch in Maranello on Wednesday.
From there, it will likely be pre-season testing in Bahrain subsequent week (26-28 February) earlier than the season-opener in Melbourne a fortnight later.
However with McLaren’s constructors’ victory last year and Purple Bull’s Max Verstappen claiming a fourth-straight drivers’ title, it will likely be removed from simply Ferrari within the combine in 2025.
“It’s so tough to know what’s been happening within the factories,” Kravitz says, cautious of constructing one other prediction. “Purple Bull now perceive the place they went flawed, will they type themselves out?
“Will Mercedes be there? And we’ve obtained Lando [Norris] and Oscar [Piastri] of their third season at McLaren. Three seasons [for Piastri] is after we begin to see the place drivers actually are, in the event that they’re truly delivering.
“So I see it extra because the story of eight drivers, relatively than 4 groups. Melbourne is a peculiar circuit and we begin the season again there, so the end result we get there may be totally different to the one in testing.”
“I feel it’s going to be tremendous tight this yr.”
Sky Sports activities is the unique residence of System 1 within the UK & Eire. Do not miss the beginning of the 2025 World Championship reside from Melbourne, Australia, March 14-Sixteenth, solely on Sky Sports activities and NOW.
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