Twenty-eight years right into a profession strolling the System One paddock with a nostril for a narrative, Sky ’s roving reporter digests the inside workings of the game and their protagonists higher than anybody. A few of it might be fiction, some could also be gossip and a few could also be truth. But when it got here to the largest switch within the historical past of F1, it was foreseen many moons in the past.
Locked in dialog on Sky Sports activities F1 after ’s fourth world championship in 2017, Kravitz is what the longer term holds for the Mercedes driver. His timing is a smidge out – he guessed three years, slightly than six – however he forecasted that Hamilton would need to conclude his profession racing for .
It might not appear the boldest prediction on the earth, however amid Mercedes’ sheer dominance on the time, all of it appeared a bit pie within the sky. Nevertheless, because the gargantuan hype builds surrounding Hamilton’s first public engagement in scarlet pink at on Tuesday night time in London, Kravitz can’t assist however revisit his impressed second of foresight.
“I principally predicted Lewis shifting to Ferrari,” Kravitz tells The Impartial. “It was a little bit of a guess on the time nevertheless it appeared that the lure of Ferrari and their significance within the sport… he all the time thought it could be very cool to be a Ferrari driver.
“He likes the model, he has among the street automobiles which is all the time a assist. If you take a look at it now, it appears a pure factor to do. It’s put a spring in his step, hasn’t it? A spring within the step of F1, simply to see how he’s going to do too.
“This story would be the reward that retains on giving this 12 months.”
The countdown to Hamilton’s Ferrari , lower than a month away, is on. Kravitz acknowledges that the fanfare surrounding this switch is unmatched; to come back shut, you would need to go all the way in which again to Michael Schumacher’s transfer from Benetton to the prancing horse in 1996.
But Kravitz is insistent that Hamilton’s stint in Italy won’t be absolutely outlined by claiming a record-breaking eighth title. Because the 40-year-old enters his 18th season within the sport, Sky’s man-on-the-ground says the Brit has made “peace” with maybe not breaking the file he holds collectively with Schumacher.
“I don’t know whether or not he feels that he has to win something, actually,” Kravitz says.
“He’s bought a 12 months, possibly two, if he’s nonetheless motivated and fast and having fun with it. I don’t even know if he must win an eighth, I simply suppose he desires to offer a superb account of himself and have some enjoyable.
“Possibly the 2026 laws will give him an edge. I don’t suppose there’s any crucial to win this 12 months slightly than subsequent 12 months.
“He simply desires to make a superb account of himself. I don’t suppose his entire transfer to Ferrari relies on successful an eighth championship. I feel he’s made his peace with not successful an eighth when he had a possibility to do it [in 2021].”
Hamilton’s first official Ferrari picture in Janaury, posing in a hanging black go well with in entrance of Enzo Ferrari’s home, grew to become the on Instagram, as he was launched to the game’s most fabled workforce in Maranello. He has undergone personal assessments in Fiorano and Barcelona within the month since – with a a couple of weeks in the past nothing greater than a blip – whereas he’ll first drive the 2025 SF-25 after Ferrari’s in Maranello on Wednesday.
From there, it will likely be pre-season testing in Bahrain subsequent week (26-28 February) earlier than the season-opener in Melbourne a fortnight later.
However with McLaren’s and Crimson Bull’s claiming a , it will likely be removed from simply Ferrari within the combine in 2025.
“It’s so tough to know what’s been happening within the factories,” Kravitz says, cautious of creating one other prediction. “Crimson Bull now perceive the place they went incorrect, will they kind themselves out?
“Will Mercedes be there? And we’ve bought Lando [Norris] and Oscar [Piastri] of their third season at McLaren. Three seasons [for Piastri] is after we begin to see the place drivers actually are, in the event that they’re really delivering.
“So I see it extra because the story of eight drivers, slightly than 4 groups. Melbourne is a peculiar circuit and we begin the season again there, so the consequence we get there could be totally different to the one in testing.”
“I feel it’s going to be tremendous tight this 12 months.”
Sky Sports activities is the unique house of System 1 within the UK & Eire. Do not miss the beginning of the 2025 World Championship stay from Melbourne, Australia, March 14-Sixteenth, solely on Sky Sports activities and NOW.
