1980 World Champion Alan Jones believes Lewis Hamilton must “start to pull his finger out” after a poor start to F1 2024, while casting serious doubt over the value of his future move for Ferrari.

In what turned out to be an extremely hectic off-season, Hamilton contributed massively with the bombshell announcement that he would leave Mercedes at the end of F1 2024 – the team he has raced to record-breaking success with since 2013 – in order to join Ferrari.

George Russell giving Lewis Hamilton ‘bit of a hiding’
But while Hamilton is striving to go out on a high at Mercedes, that mission is off to a shaky start, with team-mate George Russell having won the intra-team battle over both one lap and in the race versus Hamilton in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

That has led to the likes of 13-time grand prix winner David Coulthard to suspect that Hamilton is already “mentally” at Ferrari, an upcoming driver and team combination which Jones is struggling to see the benefit of for Ferrari beyond a financial boost.

“I don’t know whether [Hamilton] going to Ferrari is going to be the end all and be all of what Ferrari needs,” Jones told the Herald Sun.

“Okay, it was good because when he signed for Ferrari their share price just went up by about $20 billion or something.

“But at the end of the day, Lewis has really got to start to pull his finger out a little bit quite frankly. George Russell is now starting to give him a bit of a hiding now most times and the more that goes on, the more that will play on him.

“Once again the more fashion shows that he goes to and the more that he sprouts around the place, that is not going to help him either.

“I really don’t think it was [the right move for Ferrari] to be honest. In terms of increasing their share price, yes. But I just don’t think he is going to be the [answer].”