Former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone says he was stunned by Lewis Hamilton’s determination to hitch Ferrari, and suggests the transfer was pushed by ego on the a part of the Italian producer.
Final summer time, Hamilton prolonged his long-standing allegiance to Mercedes for a further two years.
Nonetheless, the seven-time world champion underwent a change of coronary heart over the winter, maybe annoyed by the lacklustre finish to the crew’s 2023 marketing campaign and its continued lack of ability to grasp F1’s floor impact laws.
An underlying choice in Hamilton’s contract and which the Briton duly exercised allowed for the termination of his settlement with Mercedes on the finish of 2024, and his efficient switch to the Scuderia for subsequent season.
Ecclestone admitted that he was shocked by Hamilton’s option to half methods with Mercedes.
“It was a wierd, unusual transfer to make,” the 93-year-old advised RacingNews365. “Toto has relied on him an terrible lot extra, they usually’ve grow to be shut for egocentric causes – each of them.
“I do not assume there was ever a kind of a relationship the place you would depend on each events. There clearly wasn’t as a result of that is why he [Hamilton] immediately determined to go away.”
However past the shocking determination, Ecclestone was additionally shocked by the timing of the announcement, which occurred only a week earlier than the beginning of the 2024 F1 season.
“Huge shock, in so far as I did not perceive why he did it, given the 12 months’s discover principally,” commented Mr. E. “Why did not he wait till in a while in the course of the season?”
“Individuals thought they’d completed a intelligent deal in taking him, however I believe it’s kind of of an ego factor that he received latched into all of it,” Ecclestone added.
“Fred [Vasseur] knew him from their early days, and I believe John Elkhann at Ferrari, from his standpoint, it was a little bit of an ego factor that he is managed to seize one of many main Components 1 drivers – the perfect Components 1 driver, in many individuals’s opinion.
“This stuff occur. Only a complete set of circumstances that come collectively.”
Curiously, the previous Brabham F1 crew proprietor urged that he wouldn’t welcome a driver like Hamilton into his crew as a result of Briton’s perceived demanding nature.
“An excessive amount of of a handful – an pointless handful,” stated Ecclestone. “He actually kind of instructions a bit at Mercedes. Toto has let him be like that, to maintain him on board and preserve him completely happy.
“However I by no means had that with the drivers. They’re nonetheless good, good pals of mine, real pals, not for finance or no matter. Good pals.
“I might slightly have that kind of relationship slightly than the very fact I bounce when anyone says bounce, or defend a scenario. If I wished to do one thing, I might do it if I believed it was the precise factor to do.”
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