Lewis Hamilton to move to Ferrari: F1 driver has the chance to do something extraordinary
The idea of Lewis Hamilton moving to Ferrari is simultaneously shocking but not remotely surprising.
Hamilton is, obviously, a prodigiously talented driver. We all know that. But he’s not just fast, he’s smart.
At his best, he can manage races and exploit the strengths of the car while minimising its weaknesses.
And, like the very best drivers, he always keeps a bit of brain space free for analysing what his opponents are doing.
It’s that blend of outright speed and tactical nous that separates the greats from the rest.
‘The Professor’ Alain Prost. Pic: AP
There is a reason why Alain Prost, the man who memorably declared that the point of Formula One was to win a race at the lowest possible speed, was known as The Professor.
Or why Michael Schumacher once performed the truly astonishing feat of finishing second in a race, despite only being able to use fifth gear.
He simply worked out the answer to a problem that most of us would find insurmountable.
But even the most thoughtful racing driver can be susceptible to a malaise that is chronic among Formula One’s greatest drivers – the obsession with Ferrari.
Put simply, there is a niggling fear among this most select of clubs that, once retired, you’ll look back on your career, forget the wins, the championships, the glory and the champagne, and rue the feeling that you never drove for the sport’s most revered team.
Because to win in a Ferrari is the ultimate goal.
Former Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher at the 2004 Japanese Grand Prix. Pic: Reuters/Action Images/John Marsh
The allure of Ferrari
I don’t think there is another sports team quite like the Ferrari F1 team.
All sports have great, world-famous sides, whose successes ebb and flow – Real Madrid, Manchester United or the New York Yankees. But for all the fans who love those teams, there is another group who can’t stand them.
With Ferrari, the spectrum is different.
Everyone is, at least, interested in them. Many like them, plenty adore them. But very few, in my 40 years of watching the sport, truly hate Ferrari. Even the ones who say they do, normally, don’t.
It is a team that has bounced between success and awful underachievement, and that, of course, is what attracts the great drivers.
What better feeling, what more romantic ambition, than to resuscitate Ferrari, who haven’t won the drivers’ title since 2007?
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It’s the same rationale, the prospect of recapturing the glorious past, that has brought a line of stellar managers to Manchester United over the past decade.
It’s what lured Schumacher to Italy (he succeeded, spectacularly), it’s what Ayrton Senna intended to do, and it’s the dream that now beguiles Hamilton.
You can understand it. Just cast your eyes over the people who’ve won a title in a Ferrari – such luminaries as Juan Manuel Fangio, Alberto Ascari, Niki Lauda and, of course, Schumacher.
Two British drivers have done so – Mike Hawthorn and John Surtees, both achieved more than 60 years ago.
British driver John Surtees in a Ferrari for the 1964 Syracuse Grand Prix. Pic: AP
Hamilton does have the chance to do something extraordinary.
Where Ferrari has fallen short
Except, of course, Ferrari doesn’t just have the ability to delight, but also to disappoint.
The team somehow managed to avoid winning the title with Sebastian Vettel, despite putting an in-form, four-time world champion into the quickest car on the circuit.
They did the same with Fernando Alonso.
Recently they’ve spent fortunes on developing a car that shows flashes of genius, and then either breaks down, slows down or is hobbled by the team’s strategic blunders.
Somehow, Ferrari have become the recidivists at snatching failure from the jaws of success. And that can’t just be down to bad luck.
Hamilton will know what he’s walking into.
But once upon a time, he shocked everyone by leaving McLaren when they were supreme and joining a nascent Mercedes team. That worked out really rather well.
Maybe, just maybe, he could be the key to unlocking Ferrari’s dreams.
World
‘At least 798 killed’ at Gaza aid points – as medical charity warns acute malnutrition at all-time high
At least 798 people in Gaza have reportedly been killed while receiving aid in the past six weeks – while acute malnutrition is said to have reached an all-time high.
The UN human rights office said 615 of the deaths – between 27 May and 7 July – were “in the vicinity” of sites run by the controversial US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
A further 183 people killed were “presumably on the route of aid convoys,” said Ravina Shamdasani, from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Its figures are based on a range of sources, including hospitals, cemeteries, and families in the Gaza Strip, as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs), its partners on the ground, and Hamas-run health authorities.
Aid agency Project Hope said on Thursday that 10 children were among at least 15 people killed as they waited for its clinic in Deir al Balah to open.
Ten children were reportedly killed when Israel attacked near a clinic on Thursday. Pic: AP
The GHF has claimed the UN figures are “false and misleading” and has repeatedly denied any violence at or around its sites.
Meanwhile, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) – also known as Doctors Without Borders – said two of its sites were seeing their worst-ever levels of severe malnutrition.
Cases at its Gaza City clinic are said to have tripled from 293 in May to 983 in early July.
“Over 700 pregnant or breastfeeding women and nearly 500 children are now receiving emergency nutritional care,” MSF said.
The humanitarian medical charity said food prices were at extreme levels, with sugar at $766 (£567) per kilo and flour $30 (£22) per kilo, and many families surviving on one meal of rice or lentils a day.
It’s a major concern for the estimated 55,000 pregnant women in Gaza, who risk miscarriage, stillbirth and malnourished infants because of the shortages.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, after Israel eased its 11-week blockade of aid into the coastal territory.
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It has four distribution centres, three of which are in the southern Gaza Strip.
The sites, kept off-limits to independent media, are guarded by private security contractors and located in zones where the Israeli military operates.
Palestinian witnesses say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire towards crowds of people going to receive aid.
The Israeli military says it has fired warning shots at people who have behaved in what it says is a suspicious manner.
It says its forces operate near the aid sites to stop supplies from falling into the hands of militants.
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Gaza situation ‘apocalyptic’, says UN expert
After the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians trying to reach the aid hubs, the United Nations has called the GHF’s aid model “inherently unsafe” and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
In response, a GHF spokesperson said: “The fact is the most deadly attacks on aid sites have been linked to UN convoys.”
The GHF says it has delivered more than 70 million meals to Gazans in five weeks and claims other humanitarian groups had “nearly all of their aid looted” by Hamas or criminal gangs.
At least 798 people in Gaza have been killed while receiving aid in six weeks, the UN human rights office has said.
A spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said 615 of the killings were “in the vicinity” of sites run by the controversial US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
A further 183 people killed were “presumably on the route of aid convoys,” Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.
The office said its figures are based on numbers from a range of sources, including hospitals, cemeteries and families in the Gaza Strip, as well as NGOs, its partners on the ground and the Hamas-run health authorities.
The GHF has claimed the figures are “false and misleading”. It has repeatedly denied there has been any violence at or around its sites.
The organisation began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, after Israel eased its 11-week blockade of aid into the enclave.
It has four distribution centres, three of which are in the southern Gaza Strip. The sites, kept off-limits to independent media, are guarded by private security contractors and located in zones where the Israeli military operates.
Palestinian witnesses say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire towards crowds of people going to receive aid.
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US aid contractors claim live ammo fired at Palestinians
The Israeli military says it has fired warning shots at people who have behaved in what they say is a suspicious manner.
It says its forces operate near the aid sites to stop supplies falling into the hands of militants.
Read more:
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Gaza situation ‘apocalyptic’, says UN expert
After the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians trying to reach the aid hubs, the United Nations has called the GHF’s aid model “inherently unsafe” and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
In response, a GHF spokesperson told the Reuters news agency: “The fact is the most deadly attacks on aid sites have been linked to UN convoys.”
The GHF says it has delivered more than 70 million meals to Gazans in five weeks and claims other humanitarian groups had “nearly all of their aid looted” by Hamas or criminal gangs.
Ten children and two women are among at least 15 killed in an airstrike near a Gaza health clinic, according to an aid organisation.
Project Hope said it happened this morning near Altayara Junction, in Deir al Balah, as patients waited for the clinic to open.
The organisation’s president called it a “blatant violation of international humanitarian law, and a stark reminder that no one and no place is safe in Gaza“.
“No child waiting for food and medicine should face the risk of being bombed,” added the group’s project manager, Dr Mithqal Abutaha.
“It was a horrific scene. People had to come seeking health and support, instead they faced death.”
Operations at the clinic – which provides a range of health and maternity services – have been suspended.
Some of the children were reportedly waiting to receive nutritional supplements, necessary due to the dire shortage of food being allowed into Gaza.
Israel‘s military is investigating and said it was targeting a militant who took part in the 7 October terror attack.
“The IDF [Israel Defence Force] regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and operates to minimize harm as much as possible,” added.
The deaths come as an agreement over a 60-day truce hangs in the balance – with President Trump cautiously saying it could happen “this week, or next week”.
Elsewhere in Gaza, the Nasser Hospital reported another 21 deaths in airstrikes in Khan Younis and in the nearby coastal area of Muwasi.
It said three children and their mother were among the dead.
Israel said its troops have been dismantling more than 130 Hamas infrastructure sites in Khan Younis over the past week, including missile launch sites, weapons storage facilities and a 500m tunnel.
On Wednesday, a soldier was shot dead when militants burst out of a tunnel and tried to abduct him, the military added.
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Eighteen soldiers have been killed in the past three weeks – one of the deadliest periods for the Israeli army in months.
A 22-year-old Israeli man was also killed on Thursday by two attackers in a supermarket in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said the Magen David Adom emergency service.
People on site reportedly shot and killed the attackers but information on their identity has so far not been released.
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Lack of food and water ‘lethal’ for Gaza children
Negotiations over a proposed 60-day ceasefire are ongoing and President Trump reportedly put “heavy” pressure on Israel’s leader, who visited the US this week.
A major sticking point is said to be the status of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) inside Gaza during the 60-day ceasefire and beyond, should it last longer.
However, Sky News understands the Israeli government thinks the chances of a permanent truce are “questionable”.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
More than 57,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war – more than half are women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health ministry.
Its figure does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
The war began in October 2023 after Hamas killed around 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 251 others.
Some of them remain In Gaza and are a crucial part of ceasefire negotiations, which also include a planned surge in humanitarian aid into the strip.
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