Brundle reveals key reasons Hamilton faces ‘hard’ Ferrari switch

Martin Brundle believes a language barrier and other factors may cause issues for Lewis Hamilton when he moves to Ferrari in 2025.

Following 11 years with Mercedes, Hamilton will depart the Brackley-based outfit at season’s end and join Ferrari on a multi-year deal partnering current team leader Charles Leclerc.

Hamilton’s new challenge, which shocked the Formula 1 world, will not be straightforward as Ferrari will be counting on Hamilton to end a 15-year title drought.

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It’ll also be the first time in his F1 career that Hamilton will not drive for an English-based team after spending the first 17 years of his F1 career at teams based in the UK. The last time Hamilton drove for a non-English-based squad was in 2006 when he competed in the GP2 championship for French outfit ART Grand Prix, winning the title from Brazilian Nelson Piquet Jr.

During his time at ART Grand Prix, Hamilton drove under Fred Vasseur, and the pair will reunite at Ferrari as the Frenchman looks to continue to stamp his mark down on the team in his second season in charge.

However, despite Ferrari being a primarily Italian-centric team, Brundle expects Hamilton's requests to still be followed up due to the respect the seven-time world champion carries.

“He’s got to integrate, and it’s hard because I don’t think he’ll speak the language,” told Brundle on Sky Sports F1 podcast. “He certainly won’t speak the language and know the team like Charles Leclerc does.

“So you’ve got to go and find out where all the buttons are to press, and that’s why I think Lewis will want to try to take a few people with him. But there’ll be non-compete clauses where he can’t really do that.

“But you really want to take some of your own gang with you when you go so that you can hit the ground running.

“But I think he’ll have such respect there any way that if Lewis says, ‘I want the back wheels put on the front’, they’ll go, ‘Straight away'."

Hamilton joins a long list of Brits who have moved to Ferrari, with Mike Hawthorn and John Surtees winning their only world titles with the Prancing Horse. The last Brit to drive for Ferrari was technically Eddie Irvine, who drove for the team from 1996 to 1999 and narrowly missed out on the title to Mika Hakkinen in his final year as a Ferrari driver.

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