Ferrari insist they have no concerns over Lewis Hamilton's slump in form as the Briton gets set to drive his final race in a Mercedes before joining the Italian team after the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Hamilton, 39, unsuccessfully asked to be withdrawn from last weekend's Qatar GP after he was penalised twice by the stewards and claimed his car was “broken”.
The Briton continued to take the chequered flag in 12th – eight places behind George Russell in the other Silver Arrows – and alarmed observers by claiming after Saturday's Sprint race that he “definitely isn’t fast anymore”. He walked back those comments on Sunday, saying he "still has it".
Hamilton announced in February he was leaving Mercedes, the team in which he has won six of his seven F1 drivers' titles with, to move to Ferrari for the 2025 season. His final year with the team has been one of the most disappointing of his illustrious career though, winning only two races.
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur says the Italian team are confident the British driver’s dip will not carry into next year.
“Not at all,” said Vasseur when asked if he was concerned about Hamilton’s recent run of results. “Look at the 50 laps he did in Las Vegas where he started 10th and finished second, on the gearbox of Russell. I am not worried at all.”
Hamilton has been beaten by teammate Russell in 23 of the 29 qualifying sessions staged this season and is set to finish behind his British compatriot in the championship when the season finishes in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
Since the summer break, Hamilton has outscored Russell in just two of the nine races staged. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, who has overseen Hamilton’s 12 seasons with the Silver Arrows, said: “When he took the decision at the beginning of the season [to join Ferrari] we knew it could be a bumpy year ahead, and that is very normal.
“He knows that he is going somewhere else, and we know that our future lies with [Hamilton’s replacement] Kimi Antonelli. So to go through the ups and downs and still manage to keep it together between us, that is something that we have achieved.
“You see those very bad races, and clearly he wears his heart on his sleeve. He expresses his emotions and that is absolutely allowed. That is OK.
“Nothing is going to take away 12 incredible years, with eight constructors’ titles and six drivers’ titles [for Hamilton].
“That is what will be in the memory, and after next Sunday we are going to look back at this great period of time, rather than a season, or races that were particularly bad. We will stay with the good memories.”
Hamilton admitted in Qatar he doesn't have high hopes of a dramatic upturn in form in Abu Dhabi, but insisted that it is the approach to the weekend rather than the result that is important to him.
"I mean I don't think we're going to end up on a high," he told reporters.
"It'll end and I think what's important is how we turn up, we give it our best shot. I don't anticipate particularly much better weekend than we've had in the past weekends but naturally I'll try.
"Go in with low hopes and come out with a better result, then great, but it doesn't really make a big difference either way. These last races don't have an impact on everything we've done together."
