Ferrari chief opens up on Lewis Hamilton expressing his desire to race in red when he was just a customer

Piero Ferrari revealed that Lewis Hamilton, who is set to drive for the Italian outfit in the 2025 season, had previously expressed his desire to race for the team when he was just a customer. Hamilton used the exit clause in his two-year Mercedes contract to move to Ferrari in the upcoming season.

The 40-year-old is said to have at least three Ferraris in his massive car collection despite being a Mercedes driver for over a decade. Last year, Ferrari signed him, making it a blockbuster move in F1 history.

As he prepares to begin working with the team later this month, Piero Ferrari, the second and only living son of Enzo Ferrari, revealed in an interview with Quotidiano Nazionale (via GPBlog), that Hamilton had previously discussed his wish to race for the Prancing Horse. He also spoke very positively of the Briton, mentioning that he would be extremely strong with Charles Leclerc in the team.

"There is no doubt about the champion, as a person he has enormous charisma. Together with Leclerc, he forms a nice duo. We have known Lewis for a long time. He is one of our customers, he loves Ferraris. We have met in the past when he came by the factory to pick out the details of the cars he was buying."

He added:

"The idea of one day racing with a Ferrari and for Ferrari was something he had back then, when he was just a customer. He was talking to me about it in a polite way. I was not surprised that he came and I was happy with the deal. I hope he can win straightaway, although that will obviously depend on the car we can give him and Charles."

Lewis Hamilton has been gaining a lot of positive outlook from the chief Ferrari officials as his time to start working with the team nears.

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Ferrari CEO confirms Lewis Hamilton will start working with the team next week

Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna shared his positive outreach on Lewis Hamilton joining the Maranello-based outfit and confirmed that he would begin working with them next week.

Highlighting that changes are "positive," Vigna announced his entry to the team

"There is a lot of (excitement), there is a lot of desire to start," he said in a statement. "We are preparing the last things, Lewis will start and will come to us next week. We are ready for almost everything, nothing else but we will prepare it. Changes are always beautiful."

Lewis Hamilton will be replacing Carlos Sainz, who has made the switch to Williams Racing.

Ferrari gained quite a bit of pace during the second half of the 2024 F1 season and missed out on the title by a very small margin. The team is expected to keep this momentum heading into 2025.