Smedley: Hamilton will lift every area of Ferrari

Since Hamilton announced his shock move to Ferrari in 2025, the seven-time Formula 1 Champion's move has been the talk of the F1 town.

Much has been said about the reason's behind his move, who will replace him at Mercedes, and whether the move was shrewd one.

But a very important angle is whether Hamilton can achieve Championship glory with the Scuderia that has been failing to add Titles to its coffers since 2008.

That aspect become more important especially as other F1 Champions such as Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel both tried their luck at returning Ferrari to Championship-winning ways but failed.

Smedley - who joined Ferrari back in 2004 as a test engineer, then promoted to race engineer of Felipe Massa in 2006 until 2013 - knows a thing or two about Ferrari and is able to give some predictions about Hamilton's chances of winning in Red.

Speaking to the F1 Nation podcast, Smedley said: "I think that he's such a consummate professional that he will lift every area of the team.

"I think the difference perhaps, from certainly when I was there and Fernando [Alonso] was there, is that they've shown their potential over the last few years.

"Even last year, they showed that they were one of the few teams that were actually genuinely able to take it to Red Bull on occasion, especially in qualifying. There are areas where they need to improve, if they're going to genuinely challenge for world championships," the Briton explained.

While some may how the dynamics between Hamilton and Charles Leclerc - Ferrari's chosen one - will pan out, Smedley looks at Hamilton's impending arrival as a boost.

He said: "I think Lewis definitely can be a catalyst for crystallizing the team around him or around him and Charles [Leclerc].

"Sometimes a Formula 1 team just needs something to help them put in that extra one per cent and when you’re putting in 110 per cent, putting in that extra one or two per cent makes a massive difference.

"It's the same as what happened with Red Bull after their fallow period – once you start to win, it actually becomes difficult to stop. You've got to almost make specific interventions for it to stop, like breaking up the team, key drivers leaving, or stuff like that. That's how periods of domination stop.

"But you see, once it gets a sniff of winning and it's got instrumental people within that team – people like Lewis, who are just winning machines and are driven to win, weekend in, weekend out – if you’ve got those people leading your team, it becomes difficult to lose.

"I think that's what we may see with Ferrari," Smedley concluded.

Following his Ferrari days, Smedley followed Massa to Williams for the 2014 F1 season and took over the role of Head of Vehicle Performance until 2018.

Between 2019 and 2020, Smedley became an expert technical consultant to Formula One Group, and is now the Director of Data systems within the group.