{"id":74488,"date":"2025-08-18T02:17:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T02:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/74488\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T02:17:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T02:17:09","slug":"i-quit-ferrari-early-but-its-not-over-for-lewis-hamilton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/74488\/","title":{"rendered":"I quit Ferrari early, but it\u2019s not over for Lewis Hamilton"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">Lewis Hamilton\u2019s F1 future is being debated but a previous driver has quit Ferrari before the end of a season.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Arturo Merzario drove for multiple teams across nine seasons and 57 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/f1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">F1 <\/a>grands prix.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">But his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/f1\/teams\/ferrari\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ferrari<\/a> career was cut short amid disappointment from top boss Enzo Ferrari and a fallout with teammate Jacky Ickx. Merzario was involved in testing the notorious \u2018snowplough\u2019 car which never raced &#8211; although it helped to later develop championship winners.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;In 1973 I chose to leave the team,\u201d Merzario told Gazzetta dello Sport.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWhen I got Mauro Forghieri out of trouble, life had become very hard for me. So I made my decision before facing the last few races.&#8221; Another Ferrari driver who has problems with his car is also being discussed as if he\u2019ll quit F1 early.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">His name is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/f1\/racer\/9\/lewis-hamilton\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lewis Hamilton<\/a> and he endured a dreadful Hungarian Grand Prix which shone a spotlight on how long he\u2019ll race on for.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">But Merzario, a figure of Ferrari folklore, insists Hamilton must go on.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;It&#8217;s not over,\u201d he insisted. \u201cHe is just waiting for the right opportunity.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cHe will only risk when necessary, not for an eighth position.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cAlso because, if he ever wanted to leave, he would find another team. Hamilton has already shown what he is worth.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIt&#8217;s not Charles Leclerc&#8217;s situation: Charles still has to prove that he is a champion.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ferrari folklore figure backs Lewis Hamilton    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/xpb_765526_hires.jpg\" alt=\"Arturo Merzario\" width=\"5184\" height=\"3456\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Arturo Merzario<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Hamilton\u2019s union with Ferrari joins the most successful driver with the most successful team in the sport\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">But results have not followed, although Merzario points out that off-track activity might have been the priority.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIn my opinion, Hamilton&#8217;s arrival in Maranello was a commercial operation,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201c90% of Ferrari insiders disagreed, at least as far as I know.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cAnd then, when a driver does not feel valued or an integral part of the group to achieve a goal, he loses motivation.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWhy go crazy to gain three tenths while still remaining on the third row?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Hamilton\u2019s now-notorious interview in Hungary &#8211; where he labelled himself \u2018useless\u2019 then refused to backtrack &#8211; caught Merzario\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;I think his outburst was ironic in some respects,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cCertainly his position was not what a seven-time world champion could imagine.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cRather, it seems to me that Lewis is feeling &#8216;demolished&#8217; by Ferrari.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our F1 Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton\u2019s F1 future is being debated but a previous driver has quit Ferrari before the end of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1687,831,372,6537,832,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-74488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-f1","tag-f1","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}