The lexicon defines “bizarre” as something unusual or weird. If you apply the same phrase to the high-octane sport of Formula One, Lewis Hamilton signing up with Ferrari from the 2025 season in a whopping 40-million-plus-pounds deal numbs you.
Sample this – the 2024 F1 season will roar to life on March 2 in Bahrain and end on December 8, 2024 in Abu Dhabi. During the 24 races in the immediate calendar, Hamilton, the seven-time world champion, will be with Mercedes. This is his team, the one which gave him six world titles. But then, the Briton, who will be 40 next January when he joins the Prancing Horse, has shocked fans and pundits of F1 with his deal, veiled in ultimate secrecy.
To be sure, Hamilton and bargaining have always gone hand in hand. He has been a ruthless businessman when it comes to sealing his own deals. In no sport does a hero, an icon or a champion who is not winning or performing bargain for big contracts. Yet, Hamilton has always pushed the envelope with Mercedes when he had to sign his annual contract or even longer ones.
The timing of the latest deal is something like what Hamilton used to do when at the wheel, during laps driven at electric pace. In sport, as in life, elite athletes milk the maximum when they are in their prime. Nothing wrong in that, really, since sport is entertainment plus business. That is why people sit and calculate and write articles on net assets, net worth, following on social media and so on.
It’s not that people are cringing about the deal which Ferrari have done with Hamilton. Definitely, it has suited both. Just imagine, hours after the Hamilton-Ferrari deal became public, shares of Ferrari soared. This is something like the times which Hamilton would set in free practice and the flying laps in his heydays.
But don’t get fooled. Hamilton is certainly past prime in many ways as far as his racing career is concerned. Since the time a certain Max Verstappen arrived on the horizon, Red Bull have been bulldozing the field. Drivers like Hamilton have been reduced to caricatures, pale shadows of their past, almost unsure of what it takes to set that pace again. The great driver has blamed the ‘Mercedes package’ and got away with much more.
The last time Hamilton won a race was over two years ago. Hamilton wept when he lost the F1 championship in the last race of the season in 2021, when he was outsmarted by Verstappen and Red Bull in controversial circumstances in Abu Dhabi. There was plenty of drama, excitement and tears during that race, and that particular season when the championship lead kept changing hands. That it boiled down to the last one in Abu Dhabi was gripping. In the end, when there was so much confusion and crying and Verstappen won the world title, Hamilton was bereft. It resulted in Michael Massi, the race director, getting sacked!
Since that race, Hamilton has never been the same fast and furious guy. People said he has the racing juices still flowing. If that be true, he should have done something of note in the 2022 and 2023 seasons. With the 2024 season a month away, Hamilton has taken Mercedes and many more for a ride.
He enjoys immense popularity, no doubt. He goes against the rules, wears rings, nose rings and earrings, all in contravention of F1’s safety rules. He was also a prominent face when the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement was at its height.
“Hamilton would have bargained a big deal with Ferrari financially as well as for his personal, own image,” Karun Chandhok, India’s own Formula One driver and a leading commentator and analyst, told RevSportz in an exclusive chat. “Lewis is the biggest star not just in F1, he is among the top 10 across sport in the world. For Ferrari to have Hamilton on board, it’s a big deal. It’s like money pouring in when Michael Schumacher was there and they had sponsors like Marlboro on board. Getting Hamilton in would definitely be good for Ferrari as well.
“The point about their (Ferrari) share value spiking yesterday is slightly confusing. The timing of their announcement of financial results (quarterly) of Ferrari and the Hamilton news ‘leaking’, it shows in the short run there will be a brand benefit for Ferrari.”
In the past, some drivers who made it to the F1 circus did so because they brought in sponsorship deals. There are stories of Columbian drug lords funding drivers from South America. There is also the famous story of how Malaysia’s Alex Yoong made it to F1 and Sepang, Kuala Kumpur, hosted an F1 race because of the support from Petronas, an oil company. This was almost two decades ago.
Nothing has changed in Formula One. What the Hamilton deal with Ferrari has shown is that even much-hyped football transfers pale into insignificance now.
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