Toto Wolff has dismissed the idea that Lewis Hamilton may encounter major difficulties at Ferrari.
Hamilton and Mercedes are in their final weeks together before F1’s most successful driver joins its most successful team, Ferrari.
Hamilton will dream of winning a record eighth F1 championship at Ferrari but he will still arrive a team whose project lags behind McLaren and Red Bull, at the moment.
“I think many people say that it’s going to be really difficult,” Mercedes boss Wolff said to Motorsport about Hamilton’s move.
“But I think if you say it’s going to be really difficult, then often it’s the opposite.
“Ferrari is a great team, great people, lots of emotion and passion and therefore it’s pressure.
“But I believe they are going to find a way of working with each other.”
Wolff has backed teenage prospect Kimi Antonelli to replace Hamilton in his rookie season.
“As a competitor, when we try to beat him next year, Kimi joining George Russell clearly brings momentum with it, plus youth and freshness,” Wolff said.
“You can feel the kind of smile that is in your organisation with having an 18-year-old in a car.
“But having said that, obviously, there will be moments where Lewis’s experience would have benefited the team.
“Kimi is going to be on a steep learning curve, but it’s absolutely the right thing for the team to do and there’s not one person that would have done it differently.”
