Rob Smedley, the British automotive engineer who works for the Formula One Group after several years working within the Williams, Ferrari and Jordan, believes that the Maranello team can make that additional and decisive leap in quality, after the difficulties encountered in recent times, to be able to return to the fight for the world championship that has eluded Maranello since 2007. The last driver to bring the title to the red team was Kimi Raikkonen. Since then, the Italian side has only fought for the Formula 1 title twice (2010-12) in the final race with Fernando Alonso, who, however, paid the price in the comparison with Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel.
But Lewis Hamilton’s move to the Maranello team, where he will take Carlos Sainz’s place from 2025, forming a dream team with Charles Leclerc, could represent for Rob Smedley the move capable of changing (positively) the future history of the Scuderia, given the impact that Lewis Hamilton himself can have at Scuderia Ferrari.
“I think he’s such an experienced professional that he will improve every area of the team. I think maybe the difference, compared to when I was there and there was Fernando (Alonso, ed.), is that they have shown potential in recent years – Rob Smedley recently explained on the F1 Nation podcast – Even last year, they showed that they are one of the few teams really capable of getting the better of Red Bull on some occasions, especially in qualifying. There are areas they need to improve if they really want to fight for the championship. I think Lewis can definitely be a catalyst to build the team around him or around him and Charles. Sometimes a Formula 1 team just needs something to help them put that extra 1% in, and when you want to reach that 110%, putting that extra 1 or 2% makes a huge difference.” – the British automotive engineer pointed out.
Rob Smedley, continuing to talk about the Scuderia Ferrari – Lewis Hamilton partnership, added: “It’s what happened with Red Bull after the period when they couldn’t win: once you start doing it, it becomes difficult to stop. You almost have to make specific interventions to stop them, like dismantling the team, saying goodbye to key drivers, or things like that. This is how dominant periods end.”.
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The former Ferrari engineer, completing his statement, added: “Once you smell victory and there are key people inside that team – people like Lewis, who are simply winning machines and are driven to win, weekend after weekend – if you have those people driving your team, it becomes difficult to lose. I think that’s what we could see with Ferrari.” – he concluded.
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