James Vowles believes Lewis Hamilton will have made himself "stronger" ahead of his switch to Ferrari for the 2025 F1 season. The Williams team principal has insisted that no matter the challenge of competing against the long-embedded Charles Leclerc at the Scuderia, the British driver will find a way to match his new team-mate. After working alongside Hamilton at Mercedes for 10 seasons between 2013 and 2022, Vowles is well-placed to judge how the 40-year-old will adapt and rise to the task at Ferrari. Leclerc is widely expected to have a comfortable upper hand over the seven-time F1 drivers' champion across one lap in qualifying, something that will provide him with a considerable advantage for race days. But it is anticipated by many that Hamilton will still have the edge given his superior grand prix form. Much will hinge on how quickly he can adjust and assimilate into his new team, with both drivers in a good position to mount a drivers' title charge, provided the SF-25 is as competitive as its predecessor. Article continues below
Either way, Vowles maintains "you can never write off" Hamilton given what he has already achieved in F1. After narrowly and bitterly missing out on a record-breaking eighth championship in 2021, the next two years pose Hamilton's best opportunity to finally surpass Michael Schumacher. When it was put to Vowles that it is not, however, a given that he will attain success on track for the Maranello-based team, he agreed, but still laid down a marker for his former colleague. "Not at all," the 45-year-old told Sky Sports News . "But the one thing about Lewis that I know about him, he reinvents himself every winter. He comes back stronger every winter. "And every competitor he's been up against, he finds a way to improve himself, to become alongside them if he's behind. "If he's ahead, he finds a way of trying to step and march that forward. It's Lewis. He's a seven-time world champion. You can never write him off."
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