Former F1 driver and Le Mans winner, Marc Gene, now an ambassador for Ferrari, is confident that Lewis Hamilton will come good at Maranello.
Despite the ‘hiccup’ that was the Shanghai Sprint, much of the media remains morbidly confident that the shock move to Maranello will not work out well for the seven-time world champion.
Then again, he has hardly helped the situation, what with the glum look, the downbeat interviews and conflicting comments.
However, Gene, who spent a couple of seasons with Minardi, contested two races for Williams and won the Le Mans 24 Hours with Peugeot before joining Ferrari as test driver, is convinced the move will ultimately prove beneficial for both sides.
“It’s very early days with Lewis,” the Ferrari ambassador tells the Beyond the Grid podcast. “He won the Sprint in China, which was amazing,” he added.
“I’m just getting to know him, but no one can doubt his talent,” he continues. “He’s very experienced and you can really see he knows what he needs. That’s why, from Melbourne to China, he made a huge improvement because coming from another team, it really is not easy.
“With the current Formula 1 that you cannot test, it’s so hard to change teams and to get used to the dynamics, to get used to the steering wheel,” he explained. “That takes time.”
The Spaniard insists that everyone is too focussed on the on-track results, whereas it is off-track where the move is paying dividends.
“Already in the briefings, when he talks, you can really tell that he’s really giving some very important information,” he says, “and then he’s very exceptional in tyre management. I look at the telemetry and you see some things that he’s very exceptional.
“I know people say he won so much because he had the best team,” he adds. “Now that I’ve seen him at work, there’s a reason why he won so much.
“There’s a lot of pressure at Ferrari,” he points out. “There’s no other team in the world that you have to cope with so much pressure, as a driver, he’s going to experience things that he never experienced before, probably his debut in Fiorano, to see so many people that they had to close the roads.
“Despite the pressure, Ferrari is committed to helping Hamilton settle in,” he insists. “He has a very good team around him, I don’t think it’s difficult for him. We are making sure that he adapts to the Ferrari world very fast.
“We are very proud at Ferrari that he chose not to retire from Formula 1 without living his dream of being part of the Ferrari family,” he concludes. “I think that’s part of Ferrari’s DNA. Everybody dreams one day of driving a Ferrari.”
However, former Ferrari boss, Luca di Montezemolo, who oversaw success at Maranello with Niki Lauda and again with Michael Schumache,r is not as confident, and feels the team has lost its way.
“The team has been lacking leadership for years,” he told Brick during a visit to the Bahrain Grand Prix. “The soul is missing.
“In the past, people worked day and night, but in the past the company stood for passion,” he added, forgetting to add that the entire sport has been seemingly affected. “Now you’re chasing success almost haphazardly!”
The reluctant to point to any particular issue with the team, when asked about Hamilton he replied: “His dream of winning the World Championship title at Ferrari will not come true!”
