Lewis Hamilton urged to ‘finish it off’ and then ‘disappear’ from F1 Michelle Foster
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Lewis Hamilton urged to ‘finish it off’ and then ‘disappear’ from F1
Michelle Foster
Lewis Hamilton fastening his new yellow helmet in the Ferrari garage at Fiorano
Lewis Hamilton has brought back his yellow helmet design for his first season with Ferrari
Predicted to be in contention for the F1 2025 World title, Tom Coronel has told Lewis Hamilton to win his eighth title and then “disappear” from Formula 1.
Five years after winning his seventh and most recent World title, Hamilton has swapped Mercedes for Ferrari in a bid to cement his name as Formula 1’s greatest driver with a record-breaking eighth title.
Lewis Hamilton told: Tick this off and then you’re done
That he would be racing in red when, or if, he achieves it only adds to the mystique.
The Briton has given himself a few years to achieve the goal after signing a multi-year contract with Ferrari, one that unconfirmed reports claim is a three-year deal.
However, Dutch racing driver Coronel believes this season could be Hamilton’s best opportunity given Ferrari’s improved form last year when they won five Grands Prix and finished runner-up in the Constructors’ Championship.
“I would also say: Ferrari is just your final destination,” Coronel told Racingnews365. “Become World Champion and disappear.
“I think Ferrari had the strongest car at the end of the year, if you look at the entire combination. I can well imagine that if Hamilton still wants to tick off number eight, he has a better chance at Ferrari than at Mercedes.
“At the end of last season they were the strongest, so then I would say: just start strong in 2025 and just finish it off.”
If the 52-year-old was the director of the upcoming championship, the season would come down to a last-race shoot-out between Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
But unlike in 2021, this time around it would be Hamilton who emerged victorious. And then retired.
“I’m the director of this thriller for a while,” he continued. “If I’m Steven Spielberg, because that’s how I feel, then I think this is the moment that he should be able to do it.
“In the red suit, in the first year, tick this off and then you’re done. Then you can do other things in life.
“Of course, I would prefer to see Max become champion, that’s just a fact. But he was last year too and the two years before that too. Then Formula 1 becomes a bit monotonous.
“If I want to make the thriller, I say: the last race between Max and Hamilton and then a red Ferrari… But then Hamilton also has to have the balls to say: ‘I have done what I wanted to achieve. I drove for Ferrari and became world champion again. I am going to start a different life and am out of motorsport’.
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“Then he ends with a high point.”
Hamilton’s decision to leave Mercedes and head to Maranello surprised many in the paddock given he’d signed a new contract extension with the Silver Arrows just five months before his shock announcement.
“I understand him,” Coronel said. “Ferrari is a bucket list item for every racing driver. Now the seven-time World Champion is going to Ferrari in a mega disruptive move. And I understand him.
“It is every racing driver’s wet dream to race for Ferrari one day. You could say: ‘he is a face and ambassador of Mercedes and he always has been. And then you are 100 per cent right, but Ferrari remains Ferrari.
“He would never have gone to another team, because another team doesn’t have the emotion that Ferrari has. Formula 1 is Ferrari, and Ferrari is Formula 1. All other teams can steal.
“It’s super cool to see him driving a bit in that mist. It was a bit mysterious to drive out like that and with his yellow shirt and his red racing suit.”
