Mika Hakkinen suggested that Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari will be challenging in many ways.

Former Formula 1 world champion Mika Hakkinen has said that Lewis Hamilton’s big switch to Ferrari next year won’t be all rosy and “straightforward”. He highlighted the major changes the transition would bring to the seven-time-world champion, alongside a potent teammate like Charles Leclerc, who has been with Ferrari since 2019.

Hamilton’s decision to switch to the Maranello outfit has less than a year to materialize. The move comes after spending nearly a decade with Mercedes, where he won six titles to his name.

Nevertheless, as he aims to increase his championship count, it’s noteworthy that Ferrari hasn’t clinched a single driver’s championship since 2007 when Kimi Raikkonen secured the title. Speaking to PlanetF1.com, Hakkinen said:

“I can see that he wants to win, of course, like everybody else wants to win.

“I think he probably experienced that, with the Mercedes, maybe he thinks the Mercedes isn’t able to give him a car where he can win.

“Probably he’s seeing the opportunity that, with Ferrari, they can bring him a car where he can win.

“But it’s quite a big change for him, because he’s been in a British team – let’s call it this way – for so many, many years.

“To now change to an Italian team, where he doesn’t have experience, it can be quite a big change for him – to understand the philosophy, and how they work.

“This has nothing to say they don’t work well or they don’t do the right thing, but it’s a big change.”

Speaking further on Hamilton’s chances of winning another title, Hakkinen says it all depends on Ferrari’s title contender. He added:

That’s impossible to say. It’s all about the car.

“If they’re able to build the car and fix the problems that they have, then there is a possibility.”

Adding on how Hamilton’s Ferrari shift opens opportunities for other drivers, Hakkinen said:

For the moment where he’s in his career, it must be very exciting and motivating for him to continue with this great sport.

“I think it opens up opportunities to other drivers, too, this year is a big year because so many contracts are finishing and there’s going to be a lot of changes.”

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However, with Leclerc greeting him at Ferrari’s doorstep, the former world champion says racing for wins with Ferrari won’t be “straightforward” for Hamilton. He said:

You have Charles Leclerc over there, and he has been with the team for a long time.

“He’s a very talented young driver and the car is tailor-made for him. So it’s not going to be so straightforward, in my opinion.”

Hakkinen suggests that Hamilton’s move to Ferrari follows his accomplishment of everything with Mercedes. Now though, he might seek to recreate that sensation by clinching victories with Ferrari. He added:

I think it’s purely to have a change.

“He’s been at Mercedes for so long, and he has achieved everything with Mercedes – they have reached the pinnacle of results.

“I think he wants to now go to another team and try to find the same type of journey, and that, one day, they can become winners. But it’s all about people. It’s not about wishbones or uprights or wings, it’s about the people.”

Lewis Hamilton “most motivated and focused I’ve ever been” as he targets a strong final Mercedes season; Sky F1 podcast panel discuss what Lewis’ final season at team might be like; watch pre-season testing live from Wednesday at 7am on Sky Sports F1

Lewis Hamilton has described it as being “the greatest honour” if he was able to help take Mercedes back to the top of Formula 1 in his final season at the team before moving to Ferrari.

Speaking in an interview released by Mercedes from their Silverstone car launch Hamilton said: “I feel the most motivated and focused I’ve ever been.

“I mean every year you come back and you’re like ‘I’m fitter than ever’ and all these different things but I genuinely feel I’ve put more work and more time and more focus into preparation this year.

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“I never thought that at this point in my life that I would have hunger like I do right now and to finish on a high with this team, it would be a dream.

“We’ve gone through a whole heap together so to finish on a high it would be the greatest honour to be able to help them to get back to the top.”

After briefly driving the team’s all-new W15 for the first time in a shakedown at a wet Silverstone after its launch last week, Hamilton’s 12th and final season at Mercedes will begin in earnest this week with three days of pre-season in Bahrain on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday – live on Sky Sports F1 from 7am each day.

Hamilton and Mercedes have cemented their places in record books during an astonishing partnership since the Briton joined the team from McLaren in 2013, with the 39-year-old becoming statistically the most successful driver of all time.

But they now enter a 24-race new season with the unusual situation of already knowing they are going their separate ways in 10 months’ time. Ferrari face the same scenario with Carlos Sainz, who Hamilton will replace.

In the latest edition of the Sky Sports F1 podcast after the completion of the car launches, Martin Brundle said: “I have no doubt he will give it absolutely everything he’s got until the last lap of the last race in Abu Dhabi for Mercedes-Benz.

“He will be wearing those overalls, holding that steering wheel, representing 1,500 people. If everybody is smart in that, and I think they are all very smart people, and they have had such a wonderful relationship together, I think they will see it as a farewell tour.

“I think that’s how they should and will treat it, and then wish him farewell and hope that he loses in a Ferrari!”

But Brundle also believes the impending split means will inevitably mean that, at some point in the year, Ferrari-bound Hamilton will have to be exempt from certain meetings related to the future with team-mate George Russell the only one staying on at Brackley into 2025.

“You’ve got this transition point where Lewis will stop being invited to meetings, will not understand what’s going on with development of the car in the simulator, and the team consciously, subconsciously will favour George, they’ve got to.”