Ferrari are in a robust place to allow Lewis Hamilton to struggle for his eighth Components One world championship, in response to their former driver Carlos Sainz, who was changed by the Briton this season.
Sainz has joined Williams for 2025 after three years with Ferrari, together with final season when the crew completed with a really aggressive automotive and claimed second place within the constructors’ championship.
The Scuderia let Sainz go having secured Hamilton’s companies to drive alongside Charles Leclerc and the Spaniard, on the launch of the brand new Williams FW47, mentioned his former crew are able to enabling Hamilton to make a title tilt in his debut season with Ferrari.
“After I left Ferrari I did really feel the crew and Charles have been able to struggle for a world championship and with Lewis becoming a member of that probability is barely going to extend,” he mentioned. “After I have a look at Lewis’s outcomes and his background and what he has achieved, I can solely say that there can be a really excessive probability that he’s going to be aggressive for Ferrari. However like all the pieces, it should all rely on how effectively he can adapt to the automotive and the way effectively he can adapt to the crew.”
Williams completed ninth out of 10 final season and are nonetheless in a strategy of rebuilding, with their sights set on the regulation modifications in 2026 to actually benefit from the fruits of their labour. Nonetheless Sainz, his Thai-British teammate Alex Albon and the crew principal, James Vowles, have been all assured that they had made important steps ahead with this yr’s automotive, and anticipated to be extra aggressive in 2025.
Albon additionally famous there was no little disquiet amongst drivers over the FIA’s not too long ago introduced rule amendments that may impose heavy fines for swearing and that will even result in race bans.
“There’s positively been discussions about it. We’re nonetheless ongoing about how we need to set out what we are saying round it,” he mentioned. “It’s a delicate matter – do we expect it’s proper? In fact not.”
The FIA’s stance might result in confrontation later within the season. The clampdown is known to have been led by the FIA president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, and final yr it provoked fury from Max Verstappen when he was given a neighborhood service punishment for swearing in a press convention. The drivers responded by demanding the FIA treats them like adults.
On the Williams launch Albon famous he didn’t consider drivers ought to be “monetised” by the FIA. Final season, after they demanded to know the place the cash from fines was spent, Ben Sulayem mentioned it was “none of their enterprise”.
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