Mercedes workforce principal Toto Wolff says persons are incorrect to suppose Lewis Hamilton might face some struggles adapting to his new life at Ferrari.
Hamilton is leaving Mercedes on the finish of this season after a 12-year spell to hitch Ferrari as team-mate to Charles Leclerc.
Will probably be the primary time that he has raced for a non-British-based workforce in F1, having initially began his profession with McLaren in 2007.
Some have instructed that Hamilton might face challenges in adapting to a very totally different tradition at Maranello.
However the seven-time world champion’s present workforce boss Wolff is satisfied that Hamilton will shortly familiarize yourself with issues.
“I believe many individuals say that it should be actually troublesome,” defined Wolff. “However I believe in the event you say it should be actually troublesome, then usually it is the other.
Frederic Vasseur, Crew Principal and Normal Supervisor, Scuderia Ferrari, with Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG
Photograph by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Photos
“Ferrari is a good workforce, nice individuals, a lot of emotion and fervour and subsequently it is strain. However I consider they’re going to discover a approach of working with one another.”
Hamilton mentioned earlier this yr that he was ignoring the sceptics over a alternative he’s satisfied is appropriate for him.
“There’s not been a second the place I’ve questioned it, and I am not swayed by different individuals’s feedback,” he mentioned.
“Even right now, there’s individuals persevering with to speak shit, and it’ll proceed on for the remainder of the yr.
“And I will have to only do what I did within the earlier time. Solely you possibly can know what was best for you. And will probably be an thrilling time for me.”
The freshness of Antonelli
Wolff added that the emotional ties to Hamilton will seemingly final without end, however he’s additionally excited on the prospect of a driver shake-up inside Mercedes, with younger Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli being chosen because the British driver’s successor.
“I believe we had such an incredible run with Lewis during the last 12 years,” continued Wolff. “He is all the time going to be a part of the household.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes-AMG F1 Crew
Photograph by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Photos
“However clearly, as a competitor, once we attempt to beat him subsequent yr, Kimi becoming a member of George clearly brings momentum with it, plus youth and freshness.
“You’ll be able to really feel the type of smile that’s in your organisation with having an 18-year-old in a automobile.
“However having mentioned that, clearly, there can be moments the place Lewis’s expertise would have benefited the workforce.
“Kimi goes to be on a steep studying curve, however it’s completely the correct factor for the workforce to do and there is not one particular person that might have completed it otherwise.”
