Silver star turns red.
The day Ferrari revealed that Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time world champion, was joining its Formula 1 team for 2025, its New York Stock Exchange price rose over 10%, adding $7 billion to its net worth. This reflected the mighty scale of one of the biggest coups in F1 history, as the sport gears up to celebrate its 75th season.
The swoop was personally orchestrated by Ferrari’s president John Elkann, chosen heir of his maternal grandfather, the late Fiat titan Gianni Agnelli. It’s worth noting the intriguing internal political situation here, as the Agnelli family’s trust owns around 23% of Ferrari, with Piero Ferrari (son of founder Enzo) recently creating a succession plan for his daughter Antonella and grandsons Enzo Mattioli Ferrari and Piero Galassi Ferrari. Piero is the second largest Ferrari shareholder at around 10%.
Elkann and Ferrari’s F1 team principal Frederic Vasseur (in whose teams Hamilton starred during junior days) played essential roles in making this deal happen. It’s reportedly worth up to $100 million per year for the Briton, who turns 40 before he steps foot inside its scarlet race car. The Cavallino Rampante, or Prancing Horse, has at least been in the fight for the F1 constructors’ championship in 2024 – a title it hadn’t claimed since 2008. Coincidentally, that was the same year as Hamilton’s first drivers’ title with McLaren…
Fast forward to 2025, and Hamilton has won another six championships with Mercedes and been knighted by the British royal family. His global sporting profile – comparable with fellow gigastars Tiger Woods and LeBron James – has appealed to a far broader audience than F1 fans, becoming a prominent activist for increased diversity and social justice. His interests in fashion and music have also increased his influence outside of the cockpit, and his philanthropism and charity work mean Ferrari is not only getting one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time, but a genuine icon with mass appeal.
It won’t have escaped Ferrari’s notice that luxury segment rival Lamborghini achieved over 10,000 global sales last year, the first time in the brand’s 60-year history that it’s broken into five figures. With a third of those sales coming in the United States, Lamborghini’s demographic has shifted towards a younger customer base; some predict that the majority of its 2025 customers will be under 40. In having a champion for diversity, and the only ever Black F1 driver with a major U.S. following, you can see why Ferrari wishes to be represented by a middle-aged cultural phenomenon to grab a piece of that action.
Hamilton also has a strong Ferrari-owning history, buying a 599 GTO in 2010, before replacing it with a 599 SA Aperta. His collection includes both a LaFerrari, in which he was famously spotted driving around Beverley Hills with Justin Bieber, and an incredible LaFerrari Aperta.
Ferrari actually signed Hamilton before the 2024 campaign had even started, pouncing on an exit clause that occurred in the middle of the Mercedes driver’s two-year contract to entice him to Italy. “The opportunity just popped up,” Hamilton admitted in a BBC podcast. “I didn’t have a lot of time to think, and I had to just go with my gut feeling. I decided to take the opportunity.”
The hype for the 2025 F1 season will be off the scale, and Hamilton stated: “I feel incredibly fortunate, after achieving things with Mercedes that I could only have dreamed of as a kid, that I now have the chance to fulfil another childhood dream: Driving in Ferrari red.”
Speaking at the Trento Sports Festival, Vasseur claimed “it was not that difficult to convince Lewis” to join Ferrari. “I remember that in 2005 we were together (in Formula 3),” Vasseur added. “At the time he was tied to McLaren-Mercedes, but he already had in mind that sooner or later he would go to Ferrari.”
Elkann told Corriere dello Sport: “[Hamilton] wants to win his eighth title, Ferrari wants to win and with Lewis they are stronger. He doesn’t come to Ferrari to enjoy his retirement and it’s important to have motivated people around, who want to win.”
Before he exploded onto the F1 scene with McLaren-Mercedes in 2007, Hamilton used to play computer games as Michael Schumacher, with whom he’s tied on a record seven titles, because Lewis wondered what it would feel like to be “surrounded by red”.
While his driving talents are undoubted, no other driver can boast three figures for Grand Prix victories, there’s more to this accord than signing Hamilton to extend his winning record. Like Schumacher’s F1 return with Mercedes in 2010, this is a multi-faceted deal that ensures a fresh mix of the Ferrari and Hamilton brands will grab the world’s attention.
This article appeared in our January 2025 Issue.
Introducing the January 2025 issue of duPont REGISTRY, #476, starring the all-new Ferrari F80. To get your hands on a copy, either buy a single issue or subscribe.
