Former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone believes Lewis Hamilton will not win another world championship ahead of the Mercedes star’s move to Ferrari next year.
Seven-time F1 world champion Hamilton will leave the Silver Arrows – where he has won six of his titles – at the end of the season ahead of his highly-anticipated move to the Scuderia in 2025.
Yet amid a downturn in form in recent weeks, with Hamilton languishing seventh in the drivers’ championship, questions have been raised about the 39-year-old’s level ahead of the final chapter of his career.
Ecclestone, who was in charge of F1 from 1987-2017, believes Ferrari will continue to back Charles Leclerc over Hamilton and worries the British driver’s best years are behind him.
“I believe he won’t,” Ecclestone said, when asked whether Hamilton will win a record-breaking eighth title, in an interview with the Daily Mail.
“I don’t think it will be easy for Lewis, especially in that team. They [Ferrari] will back Charles Leclerc, he’s quick and has grown up there. They won’t dump him for anyone.
“However, from Lewis’ point of view, it may not have been a mistake to join Ferrari. He couldn’t exist any longer at Mercedes. Either he’s given up with them or they have given up on him.
“They wouldn’t do much to keep him, so he is better off going.”
Ecclestone also hinted that Ferrari executive chairman John Elkann wanted to sign Hamilton as a “big ego thing.”
“It is a big deal he has got, though I suspect the bonus clauses written into his contract are there to make him feel good rather than reality,” Ecclestone added.
‘For John Elkann, the guy who runs it, it was a big ego thing. He thought he had captured the best guy the world had ever seen.
“When he signed him there was nothing to indicate he was wrong in that assessment. Whether he is still happy with that is another story. Only time will tell. If Lewis is fading, which I don’t like to see, he should go away and do something else and do a good job at it.”
Hamilton insisted after Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix – when he finished 10th in wet conditions – that his car was the “worst” Mercedes had ever given him.
Hamilton will see out his final three races with Mercedes in the next month, starting with the Las Vegas Grand Prix on 24 November.
