“Lewis Hamilton must win the F1 title”: dream of a historic longtime rival. One of Lewis Hamilton's longtime rivals dreams of seeing him win the world title. .

After a year of anticipation, the moment everyone was waiting for has finally arrived. The seven-time world champion, one of the most decorated drivers in F1 history, is now behind the wheel of one of the sport’s most legendary cars. Lewis Hamilton’s journey with Ferrari has begun, and a historic rival has admitted to dreaming of the English driver winning the world title in red. Will he succeed?

Hamilton’s start at Maranello has not gone as expected. The SF-25 is still an imperfect car, or at least not at the level of its direct competitors, particularly McLaren. Some concerns were already evident during testing, but no one in the world could have predicted such a situation. After the first two GPs, Ferrari sits at 17 points, tied with Williams.

However, if we consider only Sunday’s Grand Prix results, excluding sprint race points, the situation looks even worse. In Australia, under extreme wet conditions, neither Ferrari driver was competitive. Furthermore, after following a completely flawed strategy, they finished just outside the points.

China presented a different scenario, with a slightly better result—at least until late that evening. In the sprint, Hamilton secured his first victory in red, only to be disqualified along with Charles Leclerc ahead of Sunday’s GP. Despite these struggles, a former rival of the British driver, Sebastian Vettel, has admitted he hopes to see Lewis Hamilton win the world championship.

Between 2017 and 2018, the two engaged in battles that will go down in history—one driving for a dominant Mercedes, the other in a Ferrari attempting to break that dominance. Their fights until mid-2018, the clash in Azerbaijan the year before, and many other moments have solidified their rivalry in the sport.

“I’m keeping my fingers crossed,” Sebastian Vettel told BBC Sportsworld. “I raced against him for a long time, but we still get along, and he is by far the most outspoken driver on the grid right now. What he has achieved on track doesn’t need to be repeated—the numbers and statistics speak for themselves.”

“It’s fantastic to see that he is still on the grid competing against drivers much younger than him. I’m crossing my fingers that he wins the world championship.”

The four-time world champion also spoke about Charles Leclerc: “Charles has been there for a long time. I raced with him, and I know he has a strong foundation. We’ll see what happens—it will be a tight battle.”