Hamilton's Big Request FIXED by Ferrari! ⚡

All right guys, welcome back to Formula 1 News. Lewis Hamilton should reportedly be satisfied by the work that Ferrari have done after the test that he did at Fiorano a few days ago. Hamilton wanted some serious adjustments made to the pedals in the car that were causing him issues at the time. Ferrari, if it seems, pulled out all the stops to make that happen over the last few days. A great expense and effort to themselves to make sure Hamilton is as prepared as possible going to Barcelona in a couple of days' time for the big test, really, before the season begins. Very much looking forward to your thoughts in the comments. Hit the like button if you enjoy. Subscribe if you're new as always. Ferrari arguably acting in a rather different way to what we saw from Mercedes over the last couple of years when it comes to requests Hamilton may have been making. Let's dive straight into things. Firstly with the following. We are officially one month away from the start of the season, kind of. Okay, we're six weeks away from Melbourne, the first race of the year. It's not Bahrain this year. It's actually going to be back to Australia. But one month from today, the green light will go on at Bahrain for the pre-season test. It's the 28th or the 26th to the 28th of February. That's the pre-season testing. We are not far away, really, from the season getting back underway. Before we get there, I wanted to discuss some other drama that was happening today with many former and even sometimes kind of current in a way, Formula One drivers. Magnussen was, well, he's not current anymore, but he was around last year. This is the Daytona Rolex 24, right? And this is Kevin Magnussen in the shot here, whose team has had a pretty decent go of things. But the star of the show yesterday was no doubt Kamui Kobayashi, kind of like a cult favorite, former Formula One driver. And he still drives in all sorts of stuff, mainly stuff like this. And Kobayashi had some unreal stints yesterday here. This is a great shot, actually, of Kamui taking the lead of the top category. At one point, he went from like P9 to first in the matter of a few laps. And he did it again later on in the race as well, overtaking Drogovic, overtaking the Porsche here with a masterful move, making his way through the traffic. And as you guys can see, this is Felipe Massa in the LMP2 category. Loads of other notable names as well, former Formula One guys. Felipe Nasr as well in the Porsche. And it looks like they're about to win. One of the reasons I wanted to mention this, though, was because just over the last couple of hours, there was a dramatic incident where there was a fight for the lead of one of the categories. Here's the Corvette got into contact with the BMW because the BMW, his teammate, was just blocking despite being so many laps behind. Caused a lot of drama. And well, you can see the driver throwing the middle finger up as a result of this phenomenon. Now, in Formula One, would this be allowed? We know the rules that have recently come into place. Mohammed Ben Salim has put them in. Regulations, breaching, all this type of stuff. What the FIA say is, oh, no, we already have these. We're now being more transparent. But that's not necessarily a good thing when this is the type of stuff they're being transparent about. I'm not going to go into the details on this again. All I will say, just to clarify, a Formula One driver is F or is level four under the FIA statutes. That means that the numbers here are times by four as of when they get an offence. Now, the Rolex 24 and IMSA race, not regulated by the FIA. So Ben Salim will be watching this and will be, you know, thinking, well, if that happened under my watch, then it might be a slightly different story. I know there's been a general talking point here about what the F1 drivers could do about this because it's not like, as is the case in other sports, that these type of guidelines are made with the agreement of some sort of players union or some sort of, in this case, drivers union, the GPDA, the Grand Prix Drivers Association. That's not been the case here at all. The FIA simply ignores what they say. And Ben Salim literally said, guys, stick to the driving, which always goes well with these type of discussions. So the question, I guess, is what can they really do about it? And even in other sports like the NFL and stuff, they have agreements, not quite to this extent, but things like this in terms of what the players can say. But they've not got, you know, a microphone by their mouth the entire time they're driving, as is the case in Formula One, when things can get particularly heated. So anyway, there's lots of reasons why this is problematic. I think many fans have said, what if the drivers just all do it? You know, like, let's everyone swear in the press conferences, because if you create a problem that the FIA simply cannot handle, they won't be able to uphold these things. Last year, there were a couple of instances in the FIA press conferences. Max swearing, Shana Clare swearing as well. Clare kind of got away with it, but Max didn't. Why? I mean, look, who really knows? But it's just been something that's been thrown around over the last few days in the community, that maybe the F1 drivers can go so far with this that they effectively create a problem that the FIA cannot handle. Just to mention that this is, well, live. We're 58 minutes away from the conclusion here. Just before we get on to some of the Hamilton stuff, this is on Blue Sky, which is just like Twitter but not Twitter. Whatever. You guys might have seen the rumours yesterday that Valtteri Bottas, in addition to being Mercedes' reserve driver, is also going to be McLaren's. Now, there's obviously other options they can have as well, but you need a reserve driver who's actually going to be there at the track. So Bottas will be there with Mercedes. So McLaren could potentially use him. Of course, McLaren still take Mercedes' engines. But apparently that's not true. It's wide of the mark, as some of these journalists have liked to say. In the past, there is, well, there has been in the past, there is no reserve driver sharing arrangement in place for 2025 yet. So, you know, obviously the rumour was yesterday that this might be a possibility. He's saying it's not happening, or at least it's not in place yet, but it could be. So I wouldn't rule it out entirely, but I will say that Hamilton in a red race suit for Ferrari is still a bit of a fever dream. Bottas in papaya would also kind of blow the mind. I don't know if you guys agree with that assessment. But let's talk about what Hamilton's been up to over the last few days. This was an interesting development as well today. Carlos Sainz Sr., whose son, of course, was ousted by Ferrari because they wanted to get Hamilton in, has been, I don't know if you want to say, justifying the way that things have played out over the last few months. Of course, it was pretty much a year ago, nearly to the day, the 1st of February 2024, when it was officially confirmed that Hamilton was going to be joining Ferrari, and therefore Sainz, of course, was out the door. Sainz Sr. says it was Hamilton who initiated contact with Ferrari. I don't know if we'll ever fully know what happened to get this deal done, but our understanding is that this was a case for, you know, a very long period of time. There were conversations that Fred Vasseur and Hamilton were having, certainly John Elkan and Hamilton were having years ago, before it became a realistic possibility to join Ferrari. So I think, to be honest, as far as we understand, really, the Hamilton-Ferrari dynamic has been developing for years. They had multiple conversations over the years, certainly once Vasseur joined as their team principal. The relationship that he had with Hamilton back in the GP2 days in like 2006, that was probably a pretty big deal. Conversations were had, Elkan tried to convince Hamilton, it seems, on a couple of occasions, so Ferrari definitely wanted him. It's not like Hamilton just went to Ferrari and said, hey, I'm interested, and they said, oh, you know, that might work out. So that's kind of what it seems to be, but maybe Carlos Sainz Sr. knows something that we do not. What we do know, however, is that Ferrari are turning up in, well, Barcelona, the circuit to Barcelona-Catalunya. This seems to be the Ferrari with the car in the back or whatever, and Ferrari HP, they're turning up there for what is going to be a critical few days of testing, especially Hamilton, for Leclerc 2 to some extent, but it's going to be, of course, in the SF23, the car from two years ago. And then a couple of days later, Hamilton gets the chance to drive the SF24 in a Pirelli tyre test. Well, an article dropped today from Dequesa and the guys at Autoracer, used to be Formula Uno, but Autoracer now, discussing his first few days in Maranello, but also the changes that they are looking to make to the car. You guys may have seen the video a few days ago where we talked about the rumors that Hamilton was not especially happy with the positioning of the pedals in the cars. It's, you know, it might be a small thing, but it's an impactful thing and it's something that you need to resolve if you're going to set everything up for Hamilton or any driver to succeed properly. You do the race fits, but getting the pedal positioning correct for, you know, exactly whatever the problems were that Hamilton was experiencing on the day in Fiorano, he could still drive, but he did have a couple of lock-ups, you know, going into Turn 1 and elsewhere, and the talk from the rumors anyway was saying, yeah, Hamilton was pushing on occasion, but it was actually more that he was struggling a bit with the pedal positioning, not like he wasn't learning a lot because he was, but things like that. Leclerc, other drivers for existing teams don't have to worry about that type of stuff. And frankly, it's the type of thing that I'm sure happens a lot when new drivers join new teams. We just don't usually get to hear about it because often people don't care as much about a new driver joining a new team as they do with, you know, the most successful ever driver joining the most successful ever team. So this is what De Kessa and the guys have to say about it. They talk actually in quite some depth here about the way that things have gone and discussing how the atmosphere was kind of similar to when Schumacher joined 30 or so years ago and discussing the meetings that have happened between the pair of them over the last few years to make this possibility a reality. Ferrari and Hamilton would have wanted each other even before, but the necessary conditions were not there. Mercedes was too dominant a car to be abandoned. After all, for Lewis, it was also the result of long work that started in 2013. Piero Ferrari met him several times over the years as a customer. And well, then time has obviously progressed quite rapidly until today. Going on to say how Hamilton's father, Anthony, is a regular guest at the Ristorante Montana. I think it's, you know, a cult local. I think it's around Fiorano Maranello area anyway. But yeah, Hamilton was there for the first time. They had a discussion. They got everything sorted. There was also discussion about how understandably Hamilton has been trying his best to make sure that everything feels as homely as possible, saying that, you know, for Leclerc, the pure speed is there, but Hamilton will contribute and teach, perhaps, everything else. The attitude, the mental resilience, the continuous and maniacal search for perfection, which in the end can only be touched sometimes, but never fully achieved. So it's also interesting about why Ferrari feel that Hamilton's so important, not just for them in the near term, but also for Leclerc, because there is a lot, I think, that Leclerc will and expects to learn from the way that Hamilton approaches things. And after Hamilton's time in Formula One is done, if all goes to plan, as far as Ferrari are concerned, Leclerc will then be back to being their star man for the years to come, and maybe still will be, depending on your opinion. But, you know, he will be there more than likely, with the added experience and knowledge gained from teaming with Hamilton for a couple of years, and therefore, you know, could be an even, an absolute dominant force in the sport. That will be how Ferrari perceive this next decade to go. And maybe they even want Berman to be that man after that, depending on how good he is this season for Haas. So there's lots to say on that. Hamilton, of course, has lots to teach, but also he's got lots to learn, and he's got to ensure that he's feeling at home as much as possible. He's brought Angela Cullen, he brought his family, as well as, of course, we know. But the big rumour was the discussion around the pedal changes that Hamilton was looking to have. He wasn't happy with some things in the Fiorano test. I think that's why they came into the pits a few times. He did a five-lap stint, came into the pits, tried to get something adjusted, but it turned out that what he wanted adjusted wasn't really possible during that session. So they've instead done so over the last few days before they've got to Barcelona. So it seems that that was a pretty big job, taking apart the car, rebuilding things from scratch, maybe in terms of the pedal positioning. I don't know. I'm sure they worked on that with Hamilton. But that's what de Kessa says, that it required a lot of work to make it happen. But that's what Ferrari are willing to do. That's the extent they're willing to go to. Now, of course, no team in this scenario is going to say, no, we're not going to do that to the driver. But it just paints the general picture in terms of how much Ferrari are willing to make this work. It's not like, oh, Lewis, we can't do it yet. We'll just make sure we do it for the new SF25 or this year's car. Well, no, we'll make it happen for the two years old car instead, just to make sure that you're getting up to speed as much as possible. He also used Leclerc's wheel at the test and he was happy with some parts, but there are other preferences that he would want to change on them. And there was also a talk about just the presence that Hamilton brought to Maranello. He left a first strong mark among the men. That's how it was described. So, yeah, interesting for Leclerc. This is how the article concludes. They've still not got a name for the 677. That's this year's Ferrari. Is it going to be the SF25? Is it going to be something else? I'm sure we'll find out relatively soon. But I'm sure that Hamilton will be pretty satisfied about this, especially if they have made the adjustments that he actually wanted to the car. When he gets in the car again in Barcelona, he's happy with the outcome. And imagine that they can now keep that idea pretty central for the 2025 car and also the 2024 car that he's going to drive in a few days as well. Just there's been lots of talk about Ferrari making these adjustments in the way that they have, if it reportedly did require a lot of work, as has been discussed, just because you guys, I'm sure, might remember this, that, you know, people were quote tweeting this today when Hamilton was like, hey, especially after 2022 going into 2023, he wasn't at all convinced that the guys were making the right decision to stand by the ZeroPod concept and stuff like this. And apparently Loic Serra, who's gone with Hamilton to Ferrari, had similar thoughts. So, yeah, it was interesting, right, that Mercedes, they felt like they were doing the right thing. And Mercedes will still say the ZeroPods weren't the fundamental problem, but they were part of a fundamental concept issue with that Mercedes that they've not even fully resolved now. The rear of the car was still a weakness last year and they were still far off the pace on many a weekend. But it does, to some extent, seem like after all those years with Mercedes, Hamilton's opinions were not maybe held in the same regard as they once were. And Ferrari, I don't think this type of thing would apply in the same way. Certainly, they would be giving Hamilton a very good reason why they were not following his logic, whereas, you know, Mercedes did not seem to necessarily a couple of years ago. So very much intrigued to your thoughts in the comments below. Just one final thing, thought this is fascinating. We know that the SF23, the car that Hamilton's going to be in in Barcelona, I think it's literally two days' time on the 28th until the 30th. That's the three-day test running they're going to have there. That's going to be massively important, I think, to Hamilton and for the team at large. That car was a great quali car, not so good in the race. To be honest, it was a bit of both in the sense that, yes, it was a great quali car and it kind of cooked its tires, but the Red Bull was also kind of the other way around. Because of the design of the front suspension and stuff, the Red Bull RB19 didn't warm up the front tires as it might have otherwise done. But over a race stint, it just had unreal tire day. So that's why you see numbers like this, which feel a bit harsh on Ferrari and also a bit harsh on Charles Leclerc. But, look, he's still been on pole position many a time over the last few years. But very much intrigued to your thoughts on all of this stuff in the comments section below. Hit the like button if you enjoy. Subscribe if you're new. Take care, and I'll see you next time.