Lewis Hamilton is far from declining and goes to Ferrari fully “determined” to win his record eighth World Championship.

That is the warning issued by Mercedes stalwart Andrew Shovlin, amid a growing number of F1 figures questioning whether Ferrari has made the right decision in dropping Carlos Sainz for the seven-time World Champion Hamilton.

Mercedes declare Lewis Hamilton ‘clearly still got it’

Having gone the full F1 2024 campaign knowing it was his last with Mercedes, Hamilton experienced some painful lows, including admitting after Brazil that he thought of leaving there and then in the immediate aftermath of a disappointing race, while in Qatar he declared “I’m definitely not fast anymore” with one-lap pace proving a struggle at times.

Hamilton would finish the year with a 19-5 defeat against George Russell in the Mercedes qualifying head-to-head battle.

And with Ferrari relinquishing the services of Sainz – who like Hamilton won two grands prix in F1 2024 – in favour of signing the 40-year-old, the likes of ex-Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto, Alpine advisor Flavio Briatore and former F1 team boss Eddie Jordan have questioned the deal, while 13-time grand prix winner David Coulthard said he has “never seen this Lewis in Formula 1”.

However, Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin warns that Hamilton has not lost his touch.

“You saw in Vegas how good he is at chasing down a gap when he’s got one,” said Shovlin when speaking to Sky F1 at the 2024 season-ending Abu Dhabi GP, where Hamilton recovered from a Q1 exit to finish P4.

“He’s been quick all weekend. We let him down in qualifying. We should have started further up the grid.

“But, just it was nice to finish with a really strong drive from Lewis.

“He’s clearly still got it. He’s determined to keep going and keep winning races, keep battling for his record, and we’ll be cheering him on.”

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Hamilton is no stranger to facing scrutiny when changing teams in Formula 1, with few believing he has made the right call swapping McLaren for Mercedes in 2013.

But, six World Championships, 84 grand prix wins, 78 poles and 153 podiums later, it is safe to say that this move worked out as Hamilton looks to repeat the trick at Ferrari.

In making that move, Hamilton will leave behind his long-serving race engineer Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington, who said “the record says the story” when it comes to Hamilton and Mercedes.

Put to him that it must be greatly satisfying to see how well the Hamilton and Mercedes partnership worked out against widely-held expectations, Bonnington replied: “Yeah, super satisfying.

“I mean, for him to have that belief in us… We knew we had a competitive programme coming up with the V6 engine and the chassis, but we didn’t think it would be quite so strong.

“But to have the partnership with that car and Lewis, I mean, yeah, the record sort of says the story.”

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