Hamilton: Keeping an eye on Ferrari

While the 2024 F1 season has been a fight between McLaren and Red Bull Racing through Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, respectively, Ferrari has managed to crash their party and put themselves in contention for the F1 constructors' title.

Ferrari's form has improved following the F1 summer break and they are now second in the constructors' standings, 36 points behind leaders McLaren as Red Bull dropped to third.

Ferrari won the US Grand Prix with Charles Leclerc leading Carlos Sainz home in second, while the latter won the Mexico City Grand Prix with his teammate third.

Despite their poor showing in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Ferrari's improvement gives hope for Hamilton of having a decent car at his disposal in 2025, as he definitely looks forward to moving on from the dismal machinery Mercedes have given him since the start of the ground effect era in 2022.

"I'm very interested in my future, of course," Hamilton acknowledged, quoted by Sky Sports F1. "And so, in that respect, keeping an eye, yeah. Watching everything that happens."

"Of course," was his response when asked if Ferrari's performance improvement encouraged him, he the explained: "If you look at somewhere like maybe China already, the Red Bull was like a second ahead.

"And it's been quite incredible to see the McLaren rise and then the Ferrari in the last few races, to see their progress and just trying to keep an eye on everyone's car and what they're changing and what they're adding.

"You know, we all watch the video, all the drivers, we all watch the onboard laps and we're always trying to see where we can gain time. And there's some cars that just react differently and better or worse in certain areas.

"And you're trying to figure out how you can find that within either your balance or get the team to develop the car in that direction," the seven-time F1 champion maintained.

It seems Hamilton will have to wait until next year until he samples some Red F1 cars, as Mercedes reportedly had no intention of releasing him earlier while Ferrari were hoping to run him in the post-season Pirelli tyre test following the 2024 season finale in Abu Dhabi.

And even in 2025, Hamilton will not be able to drive his 2025 Ferrari before the pre-season test in Bahrain, but the Scuderia plan to put him in an older car under the "Testing of Pervious Cars" (TPC) concept.

Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur is not worried about Hamilton getting comfortable at the team, he said, quoted by Motorsport.com: "I'm not sure that he needs tons of hours of acclimatisation.

"He is experienced enough to be quick on the first day, or at least very soon. We'll have one or two TPC days, plus the test in Bahrain, and that will be enough."

The Frenchman also added that work is underway at Maranello, setting up a plan to get Hamilton up to speed as fast as possible.

He added: "For sure we have part of the team already focusing on ’25, on the test plan, on the communication and so, with Lewis being part of this.But not on the race team and it's not on my mind."

Hamilton leaves Mercedes after a 12-year stint where he won six of his seven F1 titles.