Legendary ex-Formula One driver Johnny Herbert has waxed lyrical about the prospects of Lewis Hamilton claiming a "perfect" eighth world title with Ferrari in the 2025 season.
After a significant switch from Mercedes after 12 years, Hamilton is vying for one more world champion crown before he considers hanging up his racing gloves.
The former Sky Sports pundit and current race steward Herbert sees such a triumph as the most romantic of finales to what promises to be an electrifying season.
Speaking to Casinoutanspelpaus, Herbert expressed his ideal scenario:
"I think Lewis Hamilton winning the championship this year would be the perfect scenario," further adding, "I think Ferrari winning the championship would be brilliant for the sport.
"But I think for me, it would be nice to see McLaren win again. Like Ferrari, they've been around for such a long time and been so successful for many, many years. But we haven't seen that in recent times, a little bit like Ferrari."
As McLaren and Lando Norris fell just short of Max Verstappen, Herbert also lavished accolades on the Woking team who he believes will once again be contenders for glory in the coming year.
He commented: "The one I think who has earned it over the last couple of years is McLaren.
With Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, it's going to be a tough one for both of those two drivers up against each other.
"It'd be lovely to see McLaren come out strong at the beginning, but then carry that the whole way through with this momentum that they've been able to generate over the last couple of years.
"The surprise of 2025 some people might say could be Mercedes, who have been successful over the years but they haven't been of recent times.
"They've been better but it's still not good enough and out of the rest of the teams, they're the one who have under-achieved realistically.
It's time for them to achieve what potential that they've always had. Mercedes and Toto Wolff have George Russell and they've got Kimi Antonelli, that dynamic is going to be interesting, to see exactly who is gonna come out on top there.
"I would predict it's George. George has all the ingredients to be able to lead a team to winning races and winning a championship.
Is it the right time for that? Is it feasible this year?
This is probably the best opportunity that they're going to have because of how close I think the racing is going to be.
"Because the racing is close, that means that they will have the opportunities to win the races then go towards that championship. Then when we go further 2026, that's where things are completely different.
No-one really knows what's going on that year, that's the one a team has to grab by the horns and lead the way. Mercedes can do that."
