[Beau2]

Originally Posted by PanozDP01

If Newey does leave and go to Ferrari, it wont be about Lewis Hamilton for a couple of reasons:

1 - Even if he joins in 2026 after gardening leave, he'll be working on the 2027 car, and even then likely won't see the real effects until 2028.

2 - Leclerc is probably the fastest driver over one lap, and sure he makes mistakes but he can generally drive the car on a knife edge. Newey loves those sorts of drivers, so he'll push towards those limits. Hamilton says it's "experiments" but in 2022 and 2024 so far, he's not been great in a car not to his liking. Leclerc in a developed Newey car would very likely make a 40 year old Lewis Hamilton look like todays Sergio Perez over 1 lap.

3 - Time. Simply put, even if I'm wrong on point 2, unless Ferrari are already top of the field in 2026 it's going to take a while for Hamilton to get another title winning car even under a Newey led team. Nothing in F1 happens over night. Hamilton didn't want to race into his 40's and he left Mercedes after 3 years of it not happening, he left McLaren after 4 years of it not happening, does he drive at Ferrari for 3+ years if it's not happening?

I think Lewis' time at Ferrari will be akin to Schumacher's time at Mercedes.

Sprint race aside, Hamilton's 2024 has been akin to Schumacher at Mercedes. There are a lot of similarities to how Mercedes are performing now compared with 2010-2012.