F1 champion warns Hamilton of 'big problem' at Ferrari: 'He has to speak'

Mika Hakkinen has urged Lewis Hamilton to be truthful to himself and Ferrari, if the British driver believes he has lost his edge in F1.

The two-time drivers' champion drew potential parallels between his own F1 exit to Hamilton's situation, when reflected on why he ultimately decided to retire at the end of the 2001 season.

Having won the title with McLaren in 1998 and 1999, before narrowly missing out to Michael Schumacher in 2000, the Finnish driver felt his outright pace start to ebb away from him the year after, claiming those missing tenths of a second are a "big, big problem" when lost.

Hamilton himself voiced similar concerns over his final year at Mercedes, bemoaning that he is "definitely not fast anymore."

Whilst Hakkinen maintains he cannot comment on what the Ferrari driver is thinking, he lent on his own experience and decision to retire, to explain what the seven-time F1 drivers' champion might be feeling.

"Well, I tell you what, I retired in 2001 and, in that year, 2001, I started losing my edge," he told PlanetF1.com. "Sometimes I was very quick. Sometimes I wasn’t there.

"I lost two or three-tenths and those two or three-tenths are a big, big problem.

"So, at that time, I decided to tell the team that, ‘thank you, this has been an incredible experience and the journey of my career and my life in Formula 1, but now, for me, it’s time to step out’.

"It was a very big decision. But that was me.

"What’s happening with Lewis is impossible to comment on, what’s happening in his mind and on what’s happening at the moment, why the performance is not there 100 percent.

"I’m not the right person to answer for that – it’s Lewis, but that was my story."

Hamilton 'has to speak' if pace is gone

In particular, Hamilton has struggled with one-lap performance since the start of the contemporary ground effects era, but the issue - and his deficit to George Russell - developed significantly last term. He lost 19-5 to his team-mate in their qualifying head-to-head.

Whilst he is F1's record pole-sitter with 104 and counting, the Briton must prove doubters wrong when the season kicks into gear - and that his wayward pace was, at least in part, tied to Mercedes and the team's own recent problems.

Nonetheless, Hakkinen insists that if Hamilton knows in his heart of hearts that he cannot deliver to the level required, he must be honest, as he was when stepping aside for Kimi Raikkonen at McLaren.

"If something similar has happened to him, he has to speak," the 56-year-old said. "He’s the right person to answer that, but he has committed now for the future.

"So, I’m sure he will work on it to get things right for this year."