“I would have replaced him with a young talent, not with a 40-year-old champion” - Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari move not approved by former F1 team owner

Former F1 team owner Giancarlo Minardi criticized Lewis Hamilton's move to Ferrari as he believes that the latter is not a "guarantee of success."

Hamilton will break away from Mercedes and move to Ferrari in the 2025 F1 season. What many have dubbed the sport's biggest signing by a team still does not feel right to Minardi. He stated that the team's decision to replace Carlos Sainz with Lewis Hamilton was wrong because a driver cannot guarantee success.

Speaking to Quotidiano Sportivo, Minardi blamed Ferrari's competitiveness on the grid rather than their drivers.

"So we have to ask ourselves: in all these years has Ferrari lost because of the fault of those who drove it?" he said. "No, the Red has not been without titles for a generation due to the responsibility of those behind the wheel."

Giancarlo Minardi further highlighted the team's signing of Sebastian Vettel. The German was one of the most competitive drivers on the grid at the time, yet failed to win a championship with the team against Mercedes' dominance.

"It follows that Hamilton is no guarantee of success. Just as Vettel was not," he continued.

Furthermore, speaking about Carlos Sainz's situation, Minardi stated that he would have kept the Spanish driver. Even if there was a case of replacing him, it would have been done with a much younger driver and not a "40-year-old champion."

"And in any case, I would have kept Sainz. In any case, I would have replaced him with a young talent, not with a 40-year-old champion," he added.

Lewis Hamilton will continue to race for Mercedes for another season. Although he has a contract till the end of the 2025 season, a clause lets him leave the team before.

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Lewis Hamilton's race engineer 'Bono' could reportedly face a major obstacle in moving to Ferrari

The seven-time F1 World Champion has been racing with Mercedes since 2013, and it was at the same time when Pete Bonnington became his race engineer. In the past decade, the two have witnessed record-breaking success together.

It might seem apparent why Lewis Hamilton would still want to race with him at the back after moving to Ferrari. There is, however, an obstacle in Bonnignton's way as reported by sport.de.

F1 teams have fixed gardening leave for some of their crews to restrict them from working for a rival team, and that is the supposed case in Bonnington's contract. He will have to finish this season with Mercedes till Abu Dhabi and then would have to take a year's gardening leave before he could join Ferrari with Hamilton.