Hamilton 'a bit too old': 'Would love Verstappen to come to Ferrari'

19:17, 11 Sep

byNorberto Mujica

Lewis Hamilton has been deemed as overly old to hold his Ferrari drive.This time by a former driver of the Scuderia's, Eddie Irvine.

Hamilton seemed to have been struggling too much to adapt to his new Ferrari team, car and teammate combo. As of late though, in the past two races, in the Ntherelands and in Italy, the Briton seems to have turned a corner, managing to qualify in close proximity of his teammate Charles Leclerc.

Irvine: Lewis is 'a bit too old'

Nevertheless, Irvine is of the idea that it's very clear to see where Hamilton's problems truly lie.

“Problem with Lewis, he came a bit too old,” Irvine told Sky F1. “But he won seven World Championships, so there’s always a price.”

The British champion is not the only who's judged harshly by the former F1 driver. Ferrari is currently dragging around the same issue the team had back then, Irvine believes.

“It’s very difficult, Ferrari, because they’re on their own in Italy," he continued. “The British teams are all surrounded by other teams, and there’s cross pollination. It’s so much different, more difficult to be on your own down in Maranello. That’s it. It’s always more difficult for Ferrari.

“They have the image, they have the history, they have everything except they don’t have that cross pollination, and that’s really tough."

Schumacher prompted key staff to follow him

Irvine then stated that Schumacher was followed to Ferrari by the top talents that hailed from other teams, simply because he was from 'another world'. Similar to how Verstappen is viewed now, he opined.

“Back in my day, you had Michael come, he was seen as by far the fastest driver, "Irvine added. "Because of that, Rory Byrne came, Ross [Brawn] came, and that whole team was built around the fact that Michael was another world.

“A bit like Verstappen is now, where if Verstappen went somewhere, he could take a lot of people. Without the whole system together, everyone’s, you know, at the same level. It’s tough, Formula 1’s tough."

Schumacher sacrificed 'a lot' in Ferrari move

Afterhighlighting the sacrifices Schumacher made to become world champion with Ferrari, a 4-year long endeavor ultimately.

“Michael gave up a lot," the Irishman continued. "Like Michael probably gave up two, three, maybe even more world championships to leave Benetton to go [to Ferrari].

"Because the first few years, people have no idea how bad it was at Ferrari. Michael, he knew there was no point for him. He was so much better than everyone else. He just decided, ‘I’m going to go there. I’m going to see what I can do,’ which was amazing.

“And he got there. But people forget, it took four years. He was always in the vicinity, but it was just, you could see he was driving the wheels off the thing to try and be there. So it was very easy for it not to happen."

Max Verstappen

The Verstappen effect could bring Ferrari back to its glory days?

Irvine then admitted he would love to see Verstappen in Ferrari red, but hoped the Dutchman wouldn't wait so long to make the switch, like Hamilton, who in the former Ferrari driver's mind, arrived at Maranello 'too late.'

“I would love Verstappen to come to Ferrari. I think the two of them together would be sensational. I hope he doesn’t leave it too late like Lewis did,” Irvine concluded.

Despite being written off and tipped for retirement, though, Hamilton has closed the gap to Charles Leclerc substantially in two very different types of track layout, Zandvoort and Monza, under very different conditions, indicating the Briton may have indeed made tangible strides toward his acclimatisation at Ferrari.

However, for the Briton the real trial by fire will come next year, when the cards are reshuffled and both he and Leclerc start the year off on equal footing.