Motorsport icon and Ferrari Formula 1 legend Jacky Ickx has awarded Lewis Hamilton high praise, describing him as deserving of a “double plus” as the seven-time champion prepares to join the Maranello team starting with the 2025 campaign.
The British driver will officially become part of the Scuderia on January 1st, marking him as the 98th driver to represent the iconic team in the Formula 1 World Championship. Belgian former racing driver Jacky Ickx, who competed in Formula One from 1966 to 1979 and found himself raced in 54 of his 116 Grand Prix starts with Ferrari, knows well the significance of competing for the legendary Maranello outfit.
A decorated racer, Jacky Ickx claimed six of his eight Formula 1 victories while driving for Ferrari, balancing his career in Grand Prix racing with his dominance at Le Mans, where he secured six victories in the grueling 24-hour event. Reflecting on Lewis Hamilton’s transition from Mercedes to the Italian side, the Belgian legend specifically highlighted Lewis Hamilton’s impactful activities beyond the racetrack.
“If you refer to Lewis, for me, he is a unique driver,” Jacky Ickx said in a recent interview for the RacingNews365 website – “It is like [Ayrton] Senna, you have Max [Verstappen], you have Michael Schumacher and [Juan Manuel] Fangio in the early days – these people have a little plus compared to the others. But to me, he is a double plus because he is a very human person who never feared to get involved in Black Lives Matter for example. He is the only one I know today who involves himself totally in something, and maybe that quality is something even more impressive than the first one when you see what he does, what he cares about with his foundation. Nobody has done that before.” – the 79-year-old Belgian pointed out.
Jacky Ickx, who twice came tantalizingly close to clinching the Formula 1 World Championship—finishing as runner-up to Sir Jackie Stewart in 1969 and again to Jochen Rindt, the sport’s only posthumous champion, in 1970—has shared his thoughts on Lewis Hamilton’s highly anticipated switch to Ferrari. Jacky Ickx expressed confidence that the British driver’s passion for the sport will now be deeply intertwined with the iconic scarlet of the Scuderia, remarking that his heart will inevitably be “tainted red.”
“I think if life is well made, and if you have the opportunity to do the things you like, it is easy because it does not work anymore. But it is clear that if you are at Ferrari for a few years and then other brands for 10 years or more, if you speak Ferrari, clearly your heart is tainted red at the end. I can see that even Lewis is attracted to be there for the end of his career. Honestly, it is fantastic because only he knows what he can do and where he wants to go.” – he concluded.
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