Bernie Ecclestone has delivered a scathing verdict on Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari. According to the former Formula 1 boss, the collaboration is nothing more than a financial marketing project, with team boss Fred Vasseur also coming under fire.
After years of loyal service at Mercedes, where he won six of his seven world titles, but failed to contend for the title in recent seasons, Lewis Hamilton made the switch to Ferrari this year. It was a move intended to breathe new life into his career, but so far, it’s been a rocky marriage between the two.
The numbers don’t lie: Hamilton is still waiting for his first podium finish with Ferrari and heads into the Brazilian Grand Prix trailing teammate Charles Leclerc by 64 points. The partnership has failed to impress Bernie Ecclestone, who shared his unfiltered opinion in an interview with Sport.de. According to the 95-year-old, Hamilton is ‘one of the best of the past ten years, but not the best’. “Everything is slipping through his fingers there. He wanted to become world champion there and is now surprised that he can’t.”
Financial Marketing Project
The former Formula 1 boss labels the partnership between Hamilton and Ferrari a ‘financial marketing project’. “I think he’s going to do more with fashion in the future,” he adds mockingly.
But Hamilton isn’t the only one under scrutiny. Team boss Fred Vasseur, who has been at the helm of the Italian racing team since 2023 and signed a new multi-year contract in the summer, also gets a dressing down. “The problem is: Ferrari needs a dictator at the top to be successful. They don’t speak Italian there, they speak ‘Ferrari’. Everyone in Italy gets involved and everyone has an opinion about what’s right and wrong. Frederic Vasseur is too weak and simply not a dictator,” says Ecclestone.
