Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: Formula 1, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Chris Nee
Seven-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton holds a particular Ferrari contract clause close to his heart.
Hamilton is in his first season with the Prancing Horse after building a long and successful F1 career with McLaren and Mercedes.
After 16 races, Hamilton sits in sixth place in the driver standings and is yet to make the podium as a Scuderia Ferrari driver.
While the 40-year-old has endured some troubles since moving over from Mercedes, he's fulfilling a dream by driving for Ferrari.
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According to former Mercedes teammate and long-time rival Nico Rosberg, Hamilton is also enjoying the fruits of a particular clause in his deal with the legendary Italian manufacturer.
A reported 50 percent rise in salary won't be doing him any harm either.
Speaking on Sky Sports' The F1 Show, 2016 world champion Rosberg revealed that Ferrari drivers have a lower contractual commitment to marketing and promotional time than other teams, including Mercedes.
"That was one of the reasons for Lewis’ switch to Ferrari," said Rosberg.
"Ferrari don’t use their drivers for sponsor dates. They have such a strong brand that they don’t have to offer their sponsors much time with drivers.
"I heard numbers that, in [Sebastian] Vettel’s time, it was 10 days he had to do, and that was it. Especially in the twilight of your career, that’s something you value so enormously.
"That was part of Lewis’ reason to go to Ferrari also, part of the decision-making."
Well-known sportspeople are committed to marketing commitments through their employers and any individual partnerships or endorsements they have with brands.
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Typically, there is a contracted number of appearances that can be used by a sponsor or partner for activities such as promotional events, content shoots and media work.
While the benefits of those commitments are obvious, they aren't always where athletes want to be on any given day.
Round 17 of the 2025 F1 season rolls around next week, with the world's richest travelling circus heading for Azerbaijan.
Baku is one of the sport's street circuits and debuted in 2017, when Hamilton and Vettel got involved with one another behind the safety car.
Hamilton won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix the next year and its short history has been dominated by Mercedes and Red Bull.
No Ferrari driver has yet won in Baku.