1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve believes it’s “super important” Lewis Hamilton ends his time at Mercedes strongly ahead of his switch to Ferrari next year.
Hamilton will end his 12-year stint at Mercedes at the end of this year before making a shock move to Ferrari.
Before the British Grand Prix, Hamilton was on a long win drought that nearly stretched to 1000 days.
Overall, while Hamilton has taken two wins for Mercedes, teammate George Russell has generally been more impressive, particularly in qualifying.
Speaking on Sky Sports’ F1 Show in Azerbaijan, Villeneuve explained why it’s necessary for Hamilton to end the season well.
“It’s super important,” he said. “It’s been so long. He’s been seen as winning when the car was easily winning and when it became hard, Russell was a little bit ahead.
“That’s not the baggage he wants to bring to Ferrari. It’s a chaotic team – not an easy team to work in. You want to arrive as a winner.”
Hamilton enjoyed a strong day on Friday in Azerbaijan.
The 39-year-old was third-fastest in FP2, just a tenth off Charles Leclerc.
“It was a really good day,” Hamilton explained. “I enjoyed today. I hit the ground running from the get go. I made incremental steps with the setup.
“For once, I felt like we didn’t have any steps that we had to come back on. It was consistently building. I don’t know how my long run is compared to others but we didn’t get a huge amount of laps.
“Red Bull seem pretty quick as does Ferrari. We’re there or thereabouts.”
While Hamilton was pleased with Mercedes’ pace, he’s remaining “cautious” about their chances of success.
“I really don’t know,” he concluded. “On this day you don’t know what fuel loads everyone is on. Often when we get to P3 or qualifying everyone takes a step and we haven’t always. We’ll stay cautious and try to do the best we can with what we have. I hope we are as close to the front as it seems. We’ll find out tomorrow.”
