Fred Vasseur ‘won’t be able to help’ Lewis Hamilton ‘just like Toto Wolff’ couldn’t

In 2025, Lewis Hamilton will join Scuderia Ferrari after more than a decade with Mercedes, and not everyone is confident it will be an easy move.

One of the main detractors is Ralf Schumacher, who told Sport1 that the move carries a “big risk.”

Ralf Schumacher: Fred Vasseur “will not be able to help” Lewis Hamilton

The biggest surprise of the 2024 Formula 1 season took place long before the cars took to the track: Lewis Hamilton announced that it would be his last year with Mercedes and that, by 2025, he would don the scarlet suit of Scuderia Ferrari.

It was a move that came after a few years of struggle in the Mercedes team, and when the German brand began to find its footing in the middle of the year, many wondered if Hamilton would remain committed to his move.

So far he has done that and says he is ready to reinvent himself. But former F1 driver turned expert Ralf Schumacher is one of the people who continues to criticize this measure.

talking to sport1In a German publication, Schumacher stated that the association of two “legendary” names, Hamilton and Ferrari, also carries “a great risk.”

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According to Schumacher, the problem could arise from several places. Hamilton is aging, Schumacher has argued, and is being overtaken by younger drivers who are better able to adapt to new cars. Hamilton will need to have a similar driving style to Leclerc to be successful, says the German. And Vasseur’s long relationship with Hamilton won’t mean much.

“(Vasseur) won’t really be able to help him,” Schumacher said of Hamilton in sport1“just like Toto (Wolff) couldn’t this year.

“Neither of them is responsible for the design of the car. In conclusion, Lewis has to adapt to the driving characteristics of the car and not the other way around.”

Schumacher pointed out the ways in which Hamilton began to struggle compared to his young Mercedes teammate George Russell, and that happens largely because a more experienced driver “had success in cars that were mostly built according to other rules.”

“Today, cars are heavier and slower to drive. There is less mechanical grip. “That means you have to change your driving style, especially in the braking zones,” Schumacher explained.

“And that’s exactly where Lewis lost time against Russell. It was especially evident in qualifying that Lewis often no longer knew exactly how to brake. That’s why he often had trouble getting to the top.

“I was used to braking very late, but that was no longer possible with the Mercedes.”

If Hamilton was already struggling compared to Russell, then Schumacher maintains that similar problems will arise against his Ferrari team-mate.

“I’m afraid that (Hamilton) will lose a few tenths in qualifying against his new teammate Charles Leclerc,” he said.

“You should expect Leclerc to have a similar driving style, because according to him the new Ferrari is being developed.

“Also, I think Leclerc is smarter when it comes to vehicle setup than many people give him credit for. He has always been extremely fast, but this season he has taken a step further in terms of consistency in races.

“He was particularly good in terms of tire management. “Leclerc has already sharpened his knives.”

Schumacher is spot on when he points out that expectations for the Hamilton/Ferrari pairing are extremely high.

“In Italy the clocks tick a little differently,” he explained. In effect, that means Hamilton will not have a long grace period with the Italian experts and is expected to perform well from the start.

Read below: Lewis Hamilton against Charles Leclerc: A bigger challenge than George Russell?