With four blows to the shield of the ‘Cavallino Rampante‘ a new era opens symbolically for Scuderia Ferrari, the most successful and iconic team in the world of Formula 1. The team is called ‘1644’ and is the union between Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton as drivers. It has already taken shape with the first official images together and seeks to break a curse that is almost ‘of age’: in 2025 it will be 18 years without a world drivers’ title … if they fail again.
It sounds impossible with Ferrari and its winning history. It is somewhat reminiscent of those drought courses between 1979 (Scheckter champion despite the thousand attempts of his teammate Gilles Villeneuve to prevent his coronation) and 2000 (the first of Schumacher dressed in red). But in 2025 it will be 18 years since that crazy finale at Interlagos, where Kimi Raikkonen was champion in a championship that Mclaren did not ‘want to win’.
It will be the target of two drivers who already look like teammates. Ferrari showed the first official images dressed in the red overalls. In addition, it is possible to establish what the colors of the car will be like, as the yellow tones disappear and white enters as the second color after the red that monopolizes with its main sponsors.
A variety of issues
For the new season, there are a variety of issues. The main ones are about Lewis Hamilton, who is coming to break Schumacher’s record and will have quite a few kilometers of testing with old cars before the start of the season. He will have his debut in Fiorano, three days (January 28-30) more testing in Barcelona with the SF-23 and two (February 4-5) with the car, theoretically, of 2025. His candidacy will be the most closely watched at the start of the season with excitement running high. “He’s full of energy, he wants to show that it’s the right decision,” said Martin Brundle, former driver and now analyst.
And there will be Charles Leclerc. He will start, practically, as a dark horse and must show his stripes within a team that already accepts some decisions of Hamilton (related to the pedals and steering wheel, mainly). He has to show those fangs to further improve his good end to 2024. There he was a serious alternative to Verstappen and Norris.