Lewis Hamilton Anointed at Ferrari

Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton made sure all eyes were on them this week.

Was there any other news in F1 this week that could even compete with Lewis Hamilton’s first appearance and drive in a Ferrari? It’s hard to choose a favorite moment from his strong mafia don vibes to the first image of him in Ferrari red. Lewis was the news this week as you could not engage with F1 social media without seeing every angle of Lewis’ arrival. Joining him at Ferrari is his long-time trainer Angela Cullen who departed in 2023. Props to her and her incredible easter egg last week. We love a family reunion!

Ferrari absolutely crushed this rollout on Lewis Hamilton’s first day at Ferrari. Brilliantly posting anticipatory shots kept the fans on the edge of their seat. Lewis showed off his new helmet design, returning to yellow, a color he wore during his McLaren days and his first year at Mercedes. Lewis stated that his first drive in the Ferrari was one of his best in F1:

“I’ve been lucky enough to have many firsts in my career, from the first test to the first race, podium, win and championship, so I wasn’t sure how many more firsts I had but driving a Scuderia Ferrari HP car for the first time this morning, was one of the best feelings of my life,” Hamilton reflected afterwards.

“When I started the car up and drove through that garage door, I had the biggest smile on my face. It reminded me of the very first time I tested a Formula 1 car, it was such an exciting and special moment, and here I am, almost 20 years later, feeling those emotions all over again.

In addition to the return of Angela Cullen, Haas announced Esteban Ocon’s race engineer as Laura Mueller. She is the first female race engineer in Formula 1. What a thrill to get to hear a female voice on the radio during a race weekend! My video on my absolute devotion to her and defense of every single thing she does is below.

In awful news, the FIA has doubled down on their swearing ruling and put in writing how far they are willing to go to penalize drivers who swear. On only the second offense, they are facing a potential one-month suspension and a deduction of championship points. This is such an insane overreach not only because we are talking about adult humans who may accidentally use swear words in a heated moment, but also because we have seen the FIA already not handle these situations fairly. Max Verstappen gets community service and Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc basically had a conversation with the stewards. This penalty also pales in comparison to actual violence drivers have committed. Lance Stroll walked away with just a warning after shoving his trainer after a bad qualifying session. Helmut Marko only received a warning from the FIA after his insanely racist comments towards Checo Perez.

So let’s get this straight, violence and racism are fine according to the FIA, but drop one F-bomb and your season is in jeopardy. I hope the drivers push back against this and even consider striking the first race. The drivers have the power, they bring in the fans, and the sponsorship money for the dangerous work they do and they should not be penalized to such an insane degree.

Check out my weekly PR roundup for all the best F1 moments this week.