Historic For F1, McLaren Boss Happy For Hamilton's Move To Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton is highly anticipated to race with Ferrari in Formula 1 2025 (VOI/Karisa Aurelia Tukan).

JAKARTA - McLaren boss Andrea Stella has given her opinion on Lewis Hamilton's first appearance as a Ferrari rider.

He described it as historic for F1 and something he really wanted to see during preparations for the new season.

Hamilton has moved to Ferrari for 2025 after more than a decade at Mercedes, where he won six of his other seven world titles in the early stages of his career with McLaren.

Over the past few weeks, the satisfaction of Hamilton's arrival at the Ferrari Maranello plant, as well as his early appearance on the special test track Fiorano and at Barcelona, has sparked interest around the world.

One of the interested observers is Stella. The Italian has spent most of F1's careers in Ferrari in various technical roles.

He works with top riders, such as Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen, and Fernando Alonso.

"Looking from a distance, I can say that in my opinion how this was reported, it was Lewis' great introduction to Ferrari," Stella, who moved from Ferrari to McLaren 10 years ago and became Team Head in early 2023, told Sky Sports.

"To be honest, as an F1 fan, after 15 years in Ferrari before, I myself was happy to see something historic for F1. Seven times world champion moved to Ferrari, one of the most iconic teams," he said again.

Stella is now excited for what seems to be an interesting F1 season, as McLaren is trying to defend their constructors' title, having won its first title last season since 1998.

However, McLaren will have a competitor from Max Verstappen (Red Bull) who is clearly targeting another title in the 2025 season. Likewise teams like Ferrari and Mercedes are trying hard to get back on track.

"I think Ferrari and Hamilton are handling this very well. But, in the end, I'm sure they know very well that the most important thing is what happens on track."

"After the initial excitement, I'm sure they will focus more on making sure the preparations go well."

"On our side, we will try and make their lives a little more difficult!" said Stella.

The ten teams will soon gather to start the 75th anniversary of F1 with a special launch event at The O2 London on February 18, 2025.

After that, they left for Bahrain for a pre-season trial from 26-28 February 2025.