Lewis Hamilton is not a “guarantee of success”♔ at Ferrari because their car i෴s still lacking, claims Giancarlo Minardi.

Ferrari were the only team to win an F1 grand prix apart from Red Bull last season, through Carlos Sainz in Singapore, but they narrowly missed out on second-place in the constructors’ championship to Mercede🔴s.

Next year they will welcome Hamilton in a blockbuster swoop but one veteran of the F1 paddock has delivꦑered a reminde🌼r that their car might still not be up to scratch.

“If we talk about marketing, it's a brilliant operation, so hats off to John Elkann,” ex-F1 team foundܫer Minardi told .

“But if we talk about Formula 1 then ♏the situation𝓰 changes.

“There are different dimensions. I am not naive, I understand the reasons that I will define as commercial of 💝the great agreement between a seven-time champion of the world and the Lady in Red.

“It is a meeting between myth 🙈and legend. However…

"I, speaking instead of motorsport and🀅 that's it, wouldn't have taken some🏅one like Hamilton.”

Minardi’s reasoning is nothing to do with age. Hamilton will be 40𒐪 when he drives a Ferrari for the first time.

“No, I swear that in my reasoning the reg♚istry office doesn't matter,” Minardi said.

“Fernando Alonso is even older than Lewis but is still very strong. And Hamilt💜on is sti💃ll competitive too.

“So we have to ask ourselves: in all th♔ese years has Ferrari lost because❀ of the fault of those who drove it?

“No, they have not been without titles for a generation due🌠 to the ཧresponsibility of those behind the wheel.

“It follows that Hamilton is no guarantee of success. Just as Sebastian𓄧 Vettel wasn't.

“In F1 it is essential to have a winning car.

“You don't build a house from the roof🍰, but fro💯m the foundations.”

Fred Vasseur is entering his second year as Ferrari team principal knowing that the famous team have not crowned an F1 champion sinไ💮ce 2007.

Vasseur pinned down Charles Leclerc to a new multi-year agreement bef꧅ore confirming Hamilton’s arrival next🍸 year.

Minardi asked: “But how will Leclerc take it?

“They extendedඣ his contract saying they were betting everything on him.

“A week goes by and ♏they put a legend likeಞ Hamilton next to him…

“Let's s🦄ay there is more than one oddity in this s🔯tory.

“And in any case I would have kept Carlos Sainz.

"But it may be that he al✱ready has a long-term agreement with Audi, which will enter from 20꧑26.

“In any case, I would have replaced him wi♔th a young talent, not with a forty-year-old champion.

“If Lewis wins the world championship with Ferrari, I will be the first to cele🙈brate.

“I limit myself to expressing a scepticism whicꦗh I hope is unfoun♌ded."

It is cl✱ear that Ferrari - and everybody else on the F1 grid - lagged massively behind Red Bull last year.

Red Bull﷽ are therefore expected to hit the ground running this year.

Hamilton will join Ferrari in 2025, a year before the new regulations come into F1, which the Scuderia may hop꧟e is the dawn of a new era which suits them.