INSIGHT | Lewis in Red: A Designer’s View on 2024’s Biggest Sporting News Story

Chris Soulsby , Senior Editor.

On Thursday 01 February 2024, the news that Sir Lewis Hamilton will join Scuderia Ferrari for the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship shook the world.

We may only be 34 days into the New Year, but Hamilton’s departure from Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team – his home for the past 12 years – might be the biggest sporting story we’ll see in 2024.

F1 has always moved fast. It always will. But in digital media, responding to breaking news and trends with the same speed and fluidity is vital.

Graphic Designer, Sam Piesse , joined Pace Six Four 12 months ago. In 2024, he’s the lead Graphic Designer working on our account with the home of British motorsport, Silverstone .

Silverstone has long had a blossoming relationship with Hamilton.

Ferrari’s newest recruit has won the British Grand Prix more times than any other driver, so when yesterday’s news broke, our very own Sam sprang into action. His mission was clear.

“No matter who you are, how much you know, or whether you’re interested in motorsport or not, everyone understands the significance of Lewis joining Ferrari,” says Sam.

“His relationship with Mercedes has existed for such a long time, and they’ve given him a platform to perform at the top of his game for the last decade. They’ve achieved so much together.

“Looking at motorsport and automotive, there aren’t many brands as iconic as Ferrari, and while it might be strange seeing Lewis in red, the actual potential that the partnership has is massive.

“Saying ‘Lewis Hamilton’ and ‘Ferrari’ in the same sentence is iconic. They’re both big names, and on-track performance aside, associating one with the other will carry so much weight commercially.

“When I saw the headlines, I didn’t believe it to start off with, but when it started to gain traction, I immediately opened Photoshop because for Silverstone, one of Britain’s most iconic athletes changing teams was going to be a big story.”

Recognising the size of the news, Sam immediately flipped his workload and set out to create visually appealing and engaging graphics which could convey the scale of Hamilton’s team change.

Over the course of the day, Sam created three unique visual designs for Silverstone Circuit’s social media channels, working with rapid productivity.

“When respected news platforms were reporting on Lewis moving to Ferrari, I immediately started preparing announcement graphics,” explains Sam.

“We had no timestamps on when the news be officially confirmed, so from my perspective, I wanted to bank at least one asset as a bare minimum before I started to work on more creative ideas.

“Especially in reactive situations like this one, it’s all about delivery on social media. If we can react to news quickly, we’ll be able to really maximise our engagement. The first visual was designed to do that.”

At 19:00 GMT, Mercedes officially confirmed that 2024 would be Hamilton’s last at the team. Less than 120 seconds later, Silverstone Circuit confirmed his Ferrari move.

Within the hour, a graphic of Sam’s creation became one of the first examples of Hamilton dressed in Ferrari’s iconic red colour palette.

“In F1, we have a lot of shots of drivers doing very similar poses for broadcast use, and showing what Lewis will look like in Ferrari red next was such an easy decision,” continues Sam.

“I could have created a complex hero graphic but in that scenario, we were still working against the clock. The official news could drop at any moment, so I was still working on an input versus output philosophy.

“Placing Lewis’ features onto a Ferrari racing suit was quite simple, but for my third visual, I wanted to try and put Lewis inside the cockpit of last season’s Ferrari F1 car.

“This meant that I had to find two images from similar angles from the 2023 British Grand Prix – one of Lewis, and one of one of the Ferrari drivers.

“Lewis was the focal point of the design because he’s the subject of the story. I edited him into the Ferrari, turned it around quickly and again, we were able to maximise the engagement because the news was still breaking.”

By capitalising on the news of Hamilton’s team change, posts on Silverstone Circuit's social channels garnered close to 1 million impressions in a single 24-hour period.

“So much of what we achieved this week came down to teamwork, but it was also because Silverstone empowered us as an agency by trusting us on what the best approach was,” adds Sam.

“Having that level of trust with a client is massive.

“To be instantly reactive to a trending subject, we need to perfectly understand what the client wants to achieve and how they want to achieve it.

“Having that alignment is what allows us to be fluid and creative, and with the trust we’ve built, we were able to really maximise the storytelling opportunity that was presented to us.”