"It's not part of his process": Former McLaren driver on whether Lewis Hamilton is worried about Ferrari's current form

Former McLaren F1 driver Pedro de la Rosa reckons Lewis Hamilton will not be too concerned with Ferrari's current form in the 2024 F1 season. The Spaniard feels that Hamilton would continue to focus on winning a race with Mercedes one last time.

The seven-time world champion would soon join Ferrari in 2025. This announcement was made before the start of the 2024 F1 season and took its fanbase by storm.

As the 2024 season progressed, Ferrari brought significant upgrades to their car that made them one of the fastest on the grid. Carlos Sainz managed to win the Australian GP, while Charles Leclerc won his first home Grand Prix at Monaco. Meanwhile, Mercedes has struggled to keep up with other top teams like McLaren and Red Bull.

In the Spanish GP, however, the Silver Arrows were much quicker than before while Ferrari experienced a dip in performance. Lewis Hamilton took his first podium of the season by finishing P3, while Leclerc and Sainz finished P5 and P6 respectively.

In the F1 Nation podcast, Pedro de la Rosa was asked whether Lewis Hamilton would be worried about how Ferrari would fare against its rivals in 2025. To this, the Spaniard replied that the seven-time world champion would not be thinking of the long-term future and would focus more on the upcoming races with Mercedes. He stated that thinking too far ahead was not something the British driver would do.

"I think that he [Lewis Hamilton] is just thinking about the next few races. He has a very good car, I mean, Mercedes has come up with a car that can challenge for wins depending on the tracks. That's what he's thinking about," de la Rosa said.

"I think that it's not part of his process, mental process, you know. I think he's just preparing himself very well for the next few races because he has a chance of winning some of them," he added.

Pedro de la Rosa and Lewis Hamilton worked together at McLaren. While Hamilton was the rookie who soon won his first world championship in 2008, de la Rosa was the team's test driver from 2003 to 2009.

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Frederic Vasseur explains Lewis Hamilton's wide job description at Ferrari

Frederic Vasseur talked about what Lewis Hamilton would be doing once he joined Ferrari. He explained that the seven-time world champion would have a much bigger role in the team than just being a driver.

In an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com, Vasseur stated that Hamilton or any other driver's role in a team is not only clocking fast laps around a circuit. He added that the 39-year-old's job description would be much wider as he would be working hard with the team on their future projects, months before the season begins.

"The input of Lewis or another driver is not just about qualification lap time and so on. It's the finality of the job. What we all collectively can see Saturday or Sunday, at the end of the day, the job of the driver is much wider," Vasseur said.

"It's starting sometimes six or eight months before the season, to be able to work on the next project, to bring his own experience, his own view on what we can do, or how we could do it and so on, and so on," he added.

As of now, Lewis Hamilton drives for Mercedes and hopes to get a win before bidding farewell to the team that allowed him to win six of his seven titles.