Mercedes staff principal Toto Wolff says persons are improper 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 affix Ferrari as team-mate to Charles Leclerc.
It is going to be the primary time that he has raced for a non-British-based staff in F1, having initially began his profession with McLaren in 2007.
Some have urged that Hamilton might face challenges in adapting to a totally totally different tradition at Maranello.
However the seven-time world champion’s present staff boss Wolff is satisfied that Hamilton will rapidly familiarize yourself with issues.
“I feel many individuals say that it should be actually tough,” defined Wolff. “However I feel when you say it should be actually tough, then typically it is the other.
Frederic Vasseur, Staff Principal and Common Supervisor, Scuderia Ferrari, with Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG
Photograph by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Photographs
“Ferrari is a good staff, nice individuals, plenty of emotion and keenness and subsequently it is strain. However I consider they’re going to discover a means of working with one another.”
Hamilton mentioned earlier this 12 months 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 immediately, there’s individuals persevering with to speak shit, and it’ll proceed on for the remainder of the 12 months.
“And I will have to only do what I did within the earlier time. Solely you’ll be able to 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 doubtless final perpetually, 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 feel we had such an awesome 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 Staff
Photograph by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Photographs
“However clearly, as a competitor, once we attempt to beat him subsequent 12 months, Kimi becoming a member of George clearly brings momentum with it, plus youth and freshness.
“You possibly can really feel the form of smile that’s in your organisation with having an 18-year-old in a automotive.
“However having mentioned that, clearly, there shall be moments the place Lewis’s expertise would have benefited the staff.
“Kimi goes to be on a steep studying curve, nevertheless it’s completely the fitting factor for the staff to do and there is not one individual that might have carried out it otherwise.”
