Lewis Hamilton: Ferrari fans are 'dying for' another F1 world championship

Lewis Hamilton's goal for 2025 is to bring Ferrari the world championship their passionate fanbase has been craving for almost two decades.

Ferrari's last F1 world champion came back in 2007, when Kimi Raikkonen took the title. Since then, the championship has been dominated by Red Bull and Mercedes.

Now, with Hamilton lining up alongside Charles Leclerc at Ferrari, hopes are high among Ferrari's fans, the Tifosi, that the glory days could soon return to the iconic Italian team.

Hamilton and Leclerc took to the streets of Milan for a final send-off before heading to Melbourne for the opening round of the 2025 F1 season, and Hamilton explained how he'd love to build a relationship with the Italian fans – and is even learning Italian to help communicate directly to them in their own language.

"I've seen the Tifosi over the years for Sebastian [Vettel], I've seen them for Fernando [Alonso], I've seen them for Charles and Carlos [Sainz], so I wasn't surprised," he told Reuters.

"Bit by bit, I'm getting to see more and more of the Tifosi and getting to know them a little bit more. I really really want to be able to communicate with them in Italian, so I've got to work on it."

Hamilton also said that he knows the fanbase is desperate to see Ferrari back on top in Formula 1, and he hopes to help deliver another championship to the Maranello outfit.

"Just driving for Ferrari is a huge honor, but they already have an incredible legacy, so it's not that they need necessarily another championship, because they have so many already.

"But I know that's what they exist to do, to work towards, and I know that the Tifosi are dying for that.

"I wouldn't be able to find the words to be able to express just how special that would be. But that's what we work towards."

Hamilton's teammate Leclerc has said that the seven-time world champion will have to adapt to the completely new dynamic as he steps into a famous team with great expectations on his shoulders. It's a contrasting situation to the one Leclerc experienced when he joined the team as a young prospect in the sport.

"Obviously, it’s very different, the situation that Lewis finds himself in joining the team," he told Formula1.com.

"When I joined, I only had done one year in Formula 1, so everything was still new to me and I had to learn how a team like Ferrari would work in Formula 1, even though I knew the factory and everything by being in the Ferrari Driver Academy before.

Ferrari

"For Lewis, an Italian team is pretty new to him, but he has achieved so much and he arrives here as a legend of the sport.

"It’s really cool to see what it was like for him to have so much success in other teams and the way they used to work, so on that we’ve learned a lot, and it was really exciting to see how happy and excited he was about the whole thing.

"For me that meant that the off-season was a bit more in the shadow, but I enjoyed it. I focused on myself, I’m pushing at the maximum to be ready for the first race, and I’m really looking forward to this year. I’m hoping that we’ll start the year in a more positive way compared to last year."

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