Rob Smedley says Lewis Hamilton has already avoided making ‘dangerous’ mistake before his Ferrari move

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Plenty of drivers are changing teams ahead of the 2025 Formula 1 season but one new pairing immediately catches the eye.

Lewis Hamilton joining Ferrari sees the sport’s most-winning driver and team come together for the final years of the Brit’s career.

Ferrari haven’t won either a Drivers’ Championship or a Constructors’ Championship since 2008.

Felipe Massa thought he had won the title that year, but Hamilton was the man who denied him at his home race in Brazil.

The performance of Kimi Raikkonen at least provided a silver lining for a team who were left broken-hearted at Interlagos by helping them win the team championship, but Ferrari’s barren spell without a title continues.

The idea of the seven-time world champion and Charles Leclerc as a partnership will excite the Tifosi and Hamilton admitted he was emotional at Monza this year, albeit not just because of the positive response he got from the home fans.

READ MORE: Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton’s life outside F1 from net worth to family

Hamilton has a lot of preparation to make before next season starts and six more races to concentrate on with Mercedes as they hope to add to their three race wins.

Former Ferrari race engineer Rob Smedley was on the Formula For Success Podcast and discussing Hamilton’s impending move.

He believed that the 39-year-old had already avoided one ‘dangerous’ mistake he could have made heading to Maranello.

It involves his race engineer Pete Bonnington who rejected a move to Ferrari and will be responsible for Hamilton’s replacement Kimi Antonelli next season.

Lewis Hamilton has already avoided ‘dangerous’ mistake ahead of Ferrari move

Talking about Hamilton’s upcoming switch, Smedley said: “When a driver like Lewis chooses your team, when a seven times world champion chooses your team to come and work at your team, first of all, I don’t think he needs to bring like an entourage with him.

“I always spoke about this publicly, both for Lewis himself, I think, but also for people like Bono [Pete Bonnington], that’s quite a dangerous game to play, to kind of follow the driver around.

“Because if the driver falls out of favour or the driver decides that after one year, this is not for him, he can’t take the entourage with him.

“So, I think that Lewis has done the right thing. He’d obviously have Team LH around him, like his management and trainers and people like that.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Scuderia Ferrari from team principal to factory

“But, I think trying to take engineers would have been a bit of a misstep.

“So, I think that the team will embrace him. I think that if you go there with a bit of a reputation like what Lewis has got for being able to deliver, the team will get around him.

“The team will definitely get around him. Then Lewis has got to do his part as well.

“Lewis has definitely got to play his part in endearing himself and embracing the culture of the team and if he can do that, they will love him.”

Lewis Hamilton has copied Michael Schumacher’s tactic ahead of move to Ferrari

Hamilton has spent his entire career with McLaren and Mercedes, meaning certain aspects of his pre-race and post-race routines will be set in stone.

That’s likely to change at Ferrari and how quickly he can adapt may end up playing a key part in how he fares during the opening races of the season.

Hamilton is already copying something Michael Schumacher did before he joined Ferrari that should aid his settling-in period.

He’s going to need all the help he can get as 2025 is set to be one of the most competitive F1 seasons in recent history.

The cars at the front of the grid are converging before the status quo is reset when the new ruleset is implemented in 2026.