Monaco, what a story! The careers, like the records, of Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher are inextricably linked. The arrival of the Briton at Ferrari adds another knot to this long common braid that could, in case of an eighth success, stop there.
It’s impossible to mention Michael without talking about Hamilton. It’s out of the question to mention Schumacher without thinking of Lewis. Everything brings them closer, especially the records, and yet everything separates them – especially their way of being and acting. The Briton is not trying to copy the path of his German predecessor. He is only inspired by it.
Now, with the arrival of the Briton at Ferrari, the parallel is even more striking. Here are the two seven-time world champions with an increasingly similar pedigree. And we’re not talking about the records and achievements they monopolize, up there, at altitudes that only Max Verstappen can consider, today, to join one day.
Both legends will have passed through Mercedes and Scuderia, but one will have won everything at the wheel of a Silver Arrow (six of his seven crowns), the other will have blown everything up in a single-seater marked with the Cavallino (five of his seven titles). Each will have nurtured his domination in a world he had shaped in his image, in Brackley or Maranello.
Why did Lewis Hamilton choose a yellow helmet and not red at Ferrari?
If he makes Scuderia win, Hamilton will take everything Once, Hamilton refused to talk about Michael Schumacher and his record. Now, he no longer fears it. He would rather appreciate the familiarity of this F1 giant whom he has only very little rubbed shoulders with and whom he even pushed out when he arrived at Mercedes at the end of 2012. Of the thirteen seasons that make up the Englishman’s career, he will have only raced for three years against Schumi (2010-2012), with no possible comparison (11 victories to 0, and 14 poles to nothing).
And it is without fear that he comes to the Italian lands of the Kaiser to achieve what other champions (Prost in 1990 and 1991, Alonso from 2010 to 2014 or Vettel from 2015 to 2020) have failed to achieve: to make Scuderia win. By achieving this, Hamilton knows that he will take everything. Alone in the world, with eight titles, he will silence all controversy. Whether it’s with statisticians, who have listed the German’s astonishing records, or with the tifosi, who have never forgotten Schumi and his outrageous domination of the 2000s.
It is with a reverence similar to that of the German that Sir Lewis entered the Mecca of auto sport. The images of his arrival in Maranello in a first communion suit, the photo in front of Enzo’s house, a stone’s throw from the Fiorano track where, like Schumacher, he will have his room to sleep the nights before the test, resemble those of Michael in a suit, at each of his visits to Italy.”Hamilton has clearly learned his lesson, treating the tifosi just like the German. He is fully aware of the difficulty of the challenge he has just taken on. His career is inextricably linked to that of his German predecessor. When he won the GP2 in September 2005 at Monza, Schumacher announced his retirement. When he signed with Mercedes in 2012, it was to replace Schumacher who was retiring, again.
His career is also inextricably linked to Ferrari and its slow descent into hell. In 2007, for his debut in Formula 1, he lost the Championship to a Scuderia car, driven by Kimi Räikkönen, and the following year, when the Englishman repeated this and won his first crown, it was again at the expense of Ferrari, who nevertheless took revenge by winning the constructors’ title. Since then, Maranello has not won a Championship.
Almost twenty years of drought speak volumes about the magnitude of this project. “I’m not thinking about an eighth title for me,” he said during the launch of the SF25 at Fiorano in mid-February. “I only see the first for Ferrari.” The Englishman has clearly learned his lesson.
Like the Schumacher-Todt duo, the Hamilton-Vasseur pair
Hamilton has just celebrated his 40th birthday, just like a certain Schumacher, when he took on the challenge of Mercedes. To avoid repeating the mistake, the driver has reunited with his physio Angela Cullen, who was by his side during his best years. He joins a team that has already begun its reconstruction. Ross Brawn, who was with him at Benetton, had preceded Schumi at Maranello. Loïc Serra did the same, leaving Mercedes last year to prepare Sir Lewis’s car.
Just as Schumacher relied on a Scuderia rebuilt by Jean Todt, the Briton is counting on another Frenchman, Fred Vasseur, to help him. And here, there will be no need to wait for the triumph of Suzuka in 2000, which forever linked the Todt-Schumacher couple.
His ties with the current boss of the Gestione Sportiva are already more than intense. They were even the reason for the Briton’s signature. In 2023, the two men crossed paths as the first rumors of a rapprochement were born. “I remember jokingly telling him that we should sit down to discuss the contract,” Vasseur confided to us in early January. “But I wasn’t really thinking about it.” Not yet. The idea is nevertheless making its way. And if, in the end, the impossible was possible… A few weeks later, at the Scuderia boss’s birthday, the two men meet again. This time alone, without a witness.
Now, everyone sees them together. If they manage to finally bring a world crown back to Italy, everything will be as before. If it’s the constructors’ one, he will have once again equaled Schumacher. If he wins the drivers’ Grail, he will be alone at the top. For the statisticians and the tifosi. Lewis Hamilton is like Schumacher. The same but different…
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