Hamilton closes with Ferrari and makes Senna’s dream come true – 02/01/2024 – Sport

Lewis Hamilton insisted that it was not his dream to defend Ferrari, the team with which he has just signed a contract, valid from 2025. An ardent fan of Artyon Senna, the Englishman said in June last year that he always preferred the combination of red and white, who marked his time at McLaren — with which the Brazilian won his three world titles —, in the red of the Italian team.

“When I was young, my reference was Ayrton Senna. Then, I was more into the red and white, my dream was McLaren,” the Englishman told Dazn, before admitting his admiration. “But I understand drivers who see a red car and say, ‘It’s an iconic team’. Luckily, I have a red car at home. Yes, I’m a Ferrari fan.”

If it wasn’t exactly Lewis’s dream to drive a Ferrari in F1, it was Ayrton’s for many years. Throughout his career in the category, the three-time champion dated the Maranello team several times, but never progressed to marriage.

Luca di Montezemolo, former president of Ferrari, said last year that his biggest regret was not having hired Senna. Something that was very close in 1994, when the Brazilian had his fatal accident.

“He came to my house in Bologna, before the Imola accident, and told me that he wanted to race with us at all costs and leave Williams. We agreed to see each other after Imola, but then what happened happened,” Montezemolo told SkySport.

“I would have been happy to have him. It would have been the icing on the cake, which is what happened with Michael Schumacher,” added the Italian.

German Michael Schumacher was hired by Ferrari in 1996 and stayed with the team until 2006, during which time he won five of his seven world titles — the first two he won with Benetton.

Hamilton had a similar trajectory at Mercedes, the team to which the Briton transferred in 2013 and where he won six of his seven championships. He won the title that elevated him to the category of world champion with McLaren in 2008, when he fulfilled his childhood dream.

Since last year, when the Englishman’s contract renewal with Toto Wolff’s team took on the air of a soap opera, extending until mid-August, rumors pointed to a negotiation with Ferrari, something the driver denied.

The Italian team also denied the possibility. In the end, the Englishman ended up extending his contract with Mercedes until the end of 2025 — with a clause, now activated, that allowed early termination, at the end of 2024.

Senna also faced speculation involving his name and the Maranello team. Well before the conversation with Montezemolo, he also had meetings with Cesare Fiorio, former Ferrari boss, who wanted to unite the Brazilian with John Barnard, designer responsible for McLaren’s champion cars in the 1980s.

Fiorio was betting big on Ayrton’s talent, something that Ferrari’s historic founder, Enzo Ferrari, didn’t want to do when the Brazilian was 24 years old. At the time, the pilot’s name was suggested to him, but Enzo thought he was too young.

The Commendatore changed his mind in the following years, when he invited Senna to a meeting in 1986, a time when the Brazilian’s contract with Lotus was nearing the end.

The conversation between them, however, was not fruitful. On the contrary, Enzo released a harsh note, in which he said that Senna was certainly a great driver, but: “I’m not so sure about the man”.

Ferrari’s doors would only be open again to the Brazilian after the death of the boss, in 1988. In 1989, Fiorio tried to join Senna and Prost in the Italian team, but only managed to close with the Frenchman for the 1990 season.

At the time, the two drivers were experiencing the height of the rivalry that marked their careers and that would culminate in yet another controversial title decision. In 1990, Senna crashed his McLaren into Prost’s Ferrari and won his second championship in the race held in Japan.

It was a revenge for what had happened on the same Suzuka circuit, in 1989, when Prost, still at McLaren, knocked Ayrton out of the race and took the trophy.

The episodes never completely removed Senna from Ferrari. In 1994, already at Williams, the Brazilian was unhappy with the team and sought a new approach with the Italian team.

According to Montezemolo, it was at this time that they came very close to closing a deal, as the three-time champion was willing to break his contract with Williams, which ran until the end of 1995.

The negotiation was not completed, and, in 1996, Michael Schumacher was the one who took over the mission that would belong to Senna. It was up to him to take Ferrari out of the queue, winning the title in 2000, 21 years after the previous triumph achieved by the Italians.

Another four pins followed, making the German the first seven-time world champion, a feat later equaled by Lewis Hamilton. Who will now wear the jumpsuit desired by Senna and with which Schumacher immortalized his name in F1.