Fred Vasseur has described the signing of Lewis Hamilton as a huge opportunity for Ferrari but the team principal admitted he had a very difficult conversation with his Mercedes counterpart, Toto Wolff, after poaching his driver.

Two weeks ago the seven-time world champion shocked Mercedes, with whom he has driven since 2013 and won six titles, by announcing he would be joining Ferrari in 2025. Wolff admitted he was caught by surprise given Hamilton had signed a new contract with Mercedes in August and the pair had been talking about their future at Mercedes as recently as Christmas.

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At the launch of Ferrari’s new 2024 car the SF-24 Vasseur was speaking publicly for the first time since the deal was done, standing in front of Enzo Ferrari’s desk in the Ferrari founder’s office in Maranello.

Persuading Hamilton to join Ferrari meant the team have dropped current driver Carlos Sainz for 2025 but Vasseur confessed that telling Sainz he was being jettisoned was not the hardest conversation he had over the deal.

“It was not the easiest call of my life,” he said of telling Sainz. “But the one that was most difficult was the one with Toto.”

Vasseur has long enjoyed a close relationship with Hamilton. He was his team principal at ART Grand Prix in 2005 when the British driver won the F3 title at his first attempt and then the following year was also in charge at ART when Hamilton took the GP2 championship. The pair have maintained their friendship ever since and Vasseur indicated this had played its part in bringing Hamilton to Ferrari.

“We have had a good relationship now for more than 20 years,” he said. “We were always in contact to speak about different things and it [the deal] came naturally. I don’t know what was easy or what was not but it came like this, step by step.”

Vasseur was keen to focus on the 2024 season but he did concede that Hamilton’s arrival in 2025 was going to be an important moment for Ferrari, who have not won a drivers’ title since Kimi Räikkönen took the championship in 2007. It has been the longest drought in the Scuderia’s history.

“Regarding Lewis, it’s a huge opportunity for the team,” he said. “We are sure that he will bring us a decent step for the future and it will be a good challenge for everybody.”

Hamilton will be joining Charles Leclerc at Ferrari next year and the Monegasque driver, who signed a new deal with Ferrari shortly before the Hamilton announcement, said he had known the team were attempting to bring the British driver on board.

“This kind of deal is not finalised overnight. It takes time and I was aware of those discussions before I signed my deal so it did not come as a surprise,” he said. “I have had discussions with Lewis especially when everything was announced and official. We texted each other.”

The pair enjoy a good relationship already and he also paid tribute to Hamilton, whom he was looking forward to working with in what promises to be one of the best driver pairings on the grid.

“Obviously, Lewis is an incredible driver, the most successful in history, with a lot of experience which he brings to the team which is a good thing,” he said. “Lewis is a great champion with so much success. It is always interesting to have a new teammate, because you learn different ways of driving and working, and even more so when my new teammate is a seven-time world champion.”