In our exclusive interview, the F1 analyst looks ahead to what is next for Mercedes and suggests George Russell may not become their No. 1 driver.
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What did you make of Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari?
It’s such a fascinating, shocking development. It’s a brilliant move for him and Ferrari, and a lot of us can’t wait for 2025. But 2024 stands in the way and Lewis will want to go out on a high and more than ever will want to chase that elusive set of further race wins, because he has been through a fallow period.
He will want to lead the team and beat George, and George has found Lewis to be a formidable team-mate. I think Lewis will lead Mercedes through this year very comfortably but what will happen after that is a very interesting point. Two years ago, you would have said unquestionably that George Russell will be elevated to be the No. 1 driver when Lewis leaves. But you somehow feel there’s a question mark there now.
There is other talent out there, other people available and one thing that will come from Toto Wolff is that he will be thinking about a lot of major change happening within the sport and they need to be careful about not making a conservative choice for next year. It is more likely that they will make a radical decision. The radical move will be to bring in a hot rookie, someone who they will really get behind.
They will either do that or pick one of the top talents into the car and do whatever it takes because Toto Wolff has no interest in spending two or three years working his way back into championship winning form. He wants a driving line-up that can win titles every single year.
What will Hamilton’s aims be at Ferrari?
I think with the passage of time, some of us in the aftermath of Abu Dhabi in 2021 shrugged our shoulders and said it was just one of those things and it was handled incredibly badly, when Lewis missed out on winning the world title. But with the passage of time, you now look back and realise that was a travesty of such proportions that it is almost unthinkable that Lewis Hamilton should retire without an eighth world championship.
So many people feel he was not only deserving of the title. But it’s not even a question as we literally saw it with our eyes that he had the eighth world title before the person responsible for running the race didn’t follow the rules. I’m a big fan of F1 and all of the drivers, they are all amazing but when you focus specifically on Lewis, an eighth title would be fantastic.
We know from everything the Ferrari boss has said that the opportunity of Lewis and Ferrari to come together and do something special over a couple of years – 2025 the last year of the current regulations – the prospect of Lewis Hamilton winning Grand Prix’s in a Ferrari and then potentially challenging for a championship is so damn exciting. That is why is has perhaps been one of the most interesting driver changes we have seen since Lewis left McLaren to join Mercedes.
One of the things that is really striking is that it is more than a decade and a half since Ferrari won a world championship of any kind. They won a Constructor’s Championship in 2008 and a driver’s championship in 2007. A decade and a half is a long time and is getting on that period between the late 1970s and 1990s before Michael Schumacher to bring them back. It feels very painful. Having said this, Ferrari have finished a close second on a number of occasions with Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel.
But they want to win the championship and if you were to write a beautiful story book about an F1 narrative, the prospect of Lewis Hamilton winning a championship with Ferrari would be peak excitement. Let’s all hope he and they get that opportunity because it would be good for F1, and Red Bull or Mercedes would rather be fighting Lewis Hamilton and a Ferrari than anyone else. It’s good for the whole sport.
