Hamilton is going for an eighth world championship at one of F1’s most successful teams, having announced the surprise news that he would be joining the team after triggering a break clause in his contract with Mercedes last year.
After winning five titles with the Silver Arrows between 2014 and 2020, he is now looking to add to his tally of all-time wins (105), podiums (202) and poles (104).
Hamilton has struggled since the reintroduction of ground-effect cars and 18-inch wheels, only winning two races in the last three years.
Bernie Ecclestone does not think Hamilton will last at Ferrari, predicting that he will face too many enemies at Maranello.
The Briton will be keen to hit the ground running when the season begins in Melbourne, but legendary Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen has detailed one thing he does not want to see Hamilton do while at Ferrari when speaking on the RacingNews365 podcast.
Hamilton’s time at Mercedes in the last two years was largely spent hearing him complain about the various problems they faced, notably after qualifying when the car balance would change dramatically compared to practice.
Kristensen hopes that he will do less of this in 2025 at Ferrari, after the team showed signs of being competitive towards the end of last year.
“I don’t want to see him fall into inconsistency, get into bad qualifying situations, and be there in front of the camera and having to come up with different excuses of not performing,” said Kristensen.
“That was getting very tough to see. That’s why, to make this change, I think it was good for Mercedes and Hamilton.”
Ferrari’s form has been somewhat of a lottery in recent years. Having bounced back from the torrid 2020 and 2021 seasons, they have always been just short of producing a title-winning car.
The team made critical upgrades to their SF-24 at Monza last year which yielded instant success when Charles Leclerc comfortably won their home race, then went on to challenge for the win at Azerbaijan.
Leclerc put in another dominant performance at Austin, while Carlos Sainz also won at Mexico.
It was very close between Ferrari and McLaren in the Constructors’ battle, in the end the latter only won by 14 points.
In the unlikely event that Ferrari is uncompetitive and can’t challenge for wins, Hamilton might be inclined to leave the team early after the 2025 season.
