Mercedes’ James Allison reveals key aspect Lewis Hamilton will ‘have to come to terms with’ at Ferrari

Mercedes engineer James Allison joined the team in 2017 as a technical director. Allison has spent a crucial time with the team and most importantly Lewis Hamilton. Recently, Allison revealed some key aspects for Hamilton regarding the seven-time world champion’s move to Scuderia Ferrari.

James Allison believes when a driver joins Ferrari, they sense team’s intense spirit and passion. It can be challenging at the beginning, as Ferrari is seen as a shining star in F1. Allison reckoned every driver who raced for Ferrari had to deal with this reality in some point of their career. The Mercedes engineer emphasized that Lewis Hamilton would need to come to terms with the Scuderia in this regard.

Well, he'll get a sense of the spirit and passion of that team. I think initially, I think it might get tricky. Ferrari is the star. I think every driver who's driven there, at some level or other, has had to come to terms with that.

James Allison said on F1 Beyond The Grid

Allison reckoned that if Lewis Hamilton truly embraces the challenge of driving for Ferrari similar to how Michael Schumacher did. Then the seven-time world champion can coexist as great in Formula 1 alongside Schumacher. However, If Hamilton doesn’t embrace Ferrari as passionately as Schumacher did, Ferrari’s influence in Formula 1 will overshadow everything else.

If Lewis actually embraces that and loves it in the way that Michael did, then there's space for both to be great. If he doesn't, then I think the brand and the Ferrari will always, always dominate.

James Allison said

James Allison ‘not massively’ surprised by Lewis Hamilton’s decision to leave Mercedes.

The 56-year-old expressed, he wasn’t completely shocked by the news of Hamilton joining Ferrari. It was surprising to him, how and when it happened. However, the Briton knew the details of the contract the team has proposed. Allison mentioned, the terms specifically allowed to for such an occurrence to happen.

Not massively. I was surprised at the manner in which it happened, the timing of it, but I was aware of the nature of the contract we'd offered and the nature of the contract we'd offered permitted that to happen.

James Allison explained

Allison acknowledged, if such a situation occurred, there should be no surprise because it was included in the contract as a possibility. Team Mercedes was prepared for this situation to occur and acknowledged this as a potential outcome, when they agreed to terms.

So if it then happened, we shouldn't be surprised because that was explicitly a thing that we were prepared to happen or else we wouldn't have put it as an option in the contract.

James Allison stated

Certainly, Allison believes this situation of Lewis Hamilton leaving the team was gonna happen one day and the team was prepared for it. As far as fans, they are expecting a performance from the Briton that can match near to the level of Michael Schumacher at Maranello.

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