While Lewis Hamilton will win races with Ferrari, restoring title-winning glory to Maranello will be a “tall order”, believes former Formula 1 driver turned pundit Martin Brundle.
Hamilton ensured a very early start to the latest F1 ‘silly season’ by activating a release clause in his Mercedes contract to join Ferrari from 2025, with F1’s most successful driver and team now set to unite after years of speculation.
Before that, Hamilton does have one final year with Mercedes, but considering he is without a win since 2021 and Red Bull once more are being talked about as the F1 2024 pace setters, Hamilton signing off from Mercedes with a record-breaking eighth World Championship may be an achievement out of reach.
That would mean Hamilton’s ambitions of capturing that eighth title would roll over into his Ferrari tenure, creating an almost storybook ending scenario where Hamilton achieves that goal while returning Ferrari to the F1 summit where they have been absent from since their 2008 Constructors’ title.
However, while Brundle believes Hamilton will win grands prix as a Ferrari driver, the title would be a “tall order”.
“He can win races with Ferrari,” Brundle told Sky Sports News.
“Can he win another championship? Tall order. A lot of good kids around.”
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That being said, Brundle does not believe Hamilton’s time at Ferrari will necessarily be short and sweet.
Hamilton will turn 40 by the time he hits the track for Ferrari, but two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso, aged 42, is demonstrating that age is merely a number, with motivation instead the key for a driver remaining at the peak of their powers.
With that in mind, Brundle can see Hamilton racing in Ferrari red for up to four years.
Asked how confident he is that Hamilton can still perform and keep the reflexes sharp at 40, Brundle replied: “Well only a few drivers can do it because these drivers have been racing since they were four, five, six. They burn out.
“And there are a few who just seem to have an energy and a determination. Fernando Alonso is one and Lewis Hamilton is the other on the grid at the moment.
“And of course they don’t get smashed up like they used to, like we used to or get too many hits on the head. They’re physically, mentally, nutritionally so well maintained that I think he can go on for another three, four years.”
Hamilton will find Charles Leclerc on the other side of the garage at Ferrari, with Carlos Sainz on the look-out for a new home on the F1 grid come 2025.
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