Lewis Hamilton will finish his Formula 1 career with a two-year stint at Ferrari, long-time pundit Tony Jardine has predicted.

While the Briton has often claimed he'll remain with Mercedes until he retires, questions of a switch to the Scuderia have never gone away.

Hamilton currently has two more seasons left on his contract with the German manufacturer but with Sebastian Vettel's deal at Ferrari expiring at the same time, that is when Jardine thinks he'll make his move.

“Yes, after those two years [at Mercedes], he might finish his career [at Ferrari] and do a two-year deal with them, which would be fantastic,” he told Britain's Express Sport.

Explaining why he believes Hamilton will head to Maranello, it was a familiar line Jardine followed.

“Any driver always thinks about going to drive for Ferrari because it’s the dream," he claimed “It’s like the Manchester United of the sport. It’s the red colours, it’s the heritage, this incredible history.

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Ferrari could be set to continue their management shake-up with former team boss Stefano Domenicali linked with a return as CEO.

The Scuderia has seen a high turnover of executives in recent months following the death of chairman Sergio Marchionne last July with Louis Camilleri installed as the new chief executive.

However, barely six months into the post, Italian media is reporting Domenicali, who has enjoyed success as the head of Lamborghini since leaving Ferrari, could return partly to use his F1 experience in talks with Liberty Media regarding a new Concorde Agreement.

A change in the position was recently played down, however, by Piero Ferrari, the last son of founder Enzo who remains a 10% shareholder in the company.

"I say that it is necessary to give him [Camilleri] enough time to work," said the 73-year-old. "Undoubtedly his style is very different from Marchionne, but it's also unique and inimitable."

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Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff has suggested at a growing threat from Red Bull heading into the 2019 Formula 1 season.

The past two years the German manufacturer has faced Ferrari as their main competition, with the Anglo-Austrian team competing on high downforce or less power-sensitive circuits.

However, now with Honda engines in the back and based on the progress made over the past year, Wolff does think they can close the gap more regularly.

"Yeah it could well be because we have seen there is no more pattern anymore," the Mercedes chief was quoted by RaceFans.

"There is not one team that dominates one kind of circuit. It has changed and Honda’s engine certainly looks very powerful now."

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Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff has talked up the potential of George Russell by recalling his first meeting with him.

The young Briton has enjoyed a rapid rise up the motorsport ladder winning GP3 and Formula 2 in consecutive years before getting his opportunity with Williams in F1 this year.

Part of that has been possible through his association with Mercedes as a junior driver and Wolff told the story of how that came about.

“My first encounter with George was when he was 15 or 16 years old and he asked me for a meeting,” the Austrian told Formula1.com.

“I really enjoy meeting those young kids full of dreams. He came in a black suit and a tie with a notebook and he said 'I’ve just won I think it was the F4 title in British F4, and I’m considering doing F3.

“My feeling is that I should be staying with a British team because I’m very young and I understand Carlin, but would that close the Mercedes door for me if I’m not on a Mercedes engine in F3 in my first year?'.

“It was such a reflective question from a 15-year-old or 16-year-old, it was really amazing. So he has the brain, he has the empathy, the social skills and the driving.

“I can only repeat what Sebastien Philippe [Russell’s boss at ART] told me. He said he’s one of the best we’ve ever had within our team."

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Daniel Ricciardo is joining Renault a year before they can realistically compete at the front, says former Formula 1 driver Karun Chandhok.

With his contract expiring at Red Bull, the Australian took the gamble and put his faith in the long-term potential of the French manufacturer, who have been steadily working up the grid since returning as a works team in 2016.

However, the Indian, who will return to Sky Sports as a pundit this year, believes another year fending off the midfield is in store.

"Having Ricciardo as an ‘A-lister’ join them has kind of caught them slightly off-guard," said Chandhok at the Autosport International show this past weekend. "It’s probably a year [too] early for them until they are really ready for a top line driver.

"A good year for them [in 2019] will be fourth and maybe the odd podium and sort of establishing themselves as fourth. Last year they weren’t clearly ahead of Force India or Haas in terms of pace and this year they need to do that.

"They are the manufacturer team on the path to becoming a top team, so they’ve got to establish themselves as clearly the fourth best."

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Max Verstappen is now a faster driver than ex-teammate Daniel Ricciardo in both qualifying and the race, Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko claims.

The pair enjoyed a highly competitive partnership during their near three-year stint together, however, last year the final standings were very much in the Dutchman's favour, finishing 79 points clear of the Australian.

Much of that was the result of Ricciardo retiring on eight occasions but Marko says even when both drivers were running, Max was justifying his advantage,

“There is specific data,” he told Autosport. “In qualifying the gap to Ricciardo is greater and in the race, he’s also a bit faster.

“The strange thing is Max sometimes slides more, but still manages to keep the tyres alive, that has developed. When he came to us, it wasn’t like that yet."

Some will be sceptical of the claim, based on Daniel's performances at the start of 2018 particularly, but Marko suggested he had been Verstappen for some time.

“In the second year [2017], Ricciardo dropped back a bit but he recognised that and then he worked intensively with his physio and other things on himself, so he came close to Verstappen again.

“But in the second half of the 2018 season, Verstappen has clearly moved away.”

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McLaren & Williams' focus on remaining independent teams is causing their current lack of competitiveness, says Sky Sports commentator Martin Brundle.

Both outfits have steadily fallen down the pecking order in recent years and by the end of 2018 were indeed finding themselves filling the back two rows on the grid as a result of problems with development.

According to the former McLaren driver, however, their problem is much more than just errors in design, instead, it is the fundamental shift Formula 1 has taken.

"The problem with Williams and to an extent McLaren is they are outside where you need to be these days in F1," Brundle said at the Autosport International Show in Birmingham.

"You either need to be a manufacturer team or a Haas and Toro Rosso-style B-team with the hand-me-downs.

"That leaves a void in the middle where Williams and McLaren find themselves because they're not works teams and they're certainly not B-teams."

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Pirelli has brushed off the current uncertainty over Formula 1 in 2021 but admits a final agreement is needed soon.

The Italian tyre supplier has already committed their future to the sport, signing a new four-year deal last year until the end of 2023, and is now watching on as teams and Liberty Media continue talks to draw up a new Concorde Agreement.

"There are so many discussions on the future of F1, the new cars of 2021, and the change of size and so on that I’m optimistic," head of motorsport, Mario Isola is quoted by RACER.

"There are a lot of discussions around that. I think that it’s normal in Formula 1 when you have such a big change like the renewal of the agreement amongst teams and FOM that it’s a delicate situation, but we’re happy that we committed for a long period on our side."

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Sergio Perez says his confidence in the future potential of Racing Point was why he showed little interest in rejoining McLaren for 2019.

Following his strong performances with Sauber in 2012, the Mexican was chosen to replace Lewis Hamilton at the British team the following year but his stay would only last a season before being dropped in favour of Kevin Magnussen.

Since then, Perez has found a home at the newly re-named Racing Point, formerly Force India, and having played a key role in their survival last summer, now wants to remain part of their future.

"McLaren is a great team but it is lacking a bit of time, what convinced me more is the future here," said the 28-year-old.

"I've been so many years in this team, I feel so comfortable and I see a bright future. I got involved so much with the team, with the administration process, new ownership and so on, so I felt that there is more that I have to do for this team and I was very happy to commit for another year.

"I am ready to put all my best years in the team and ready to go together to the next step. That is the main target for us."

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McLaren is taking measures to ensure a less troublesome pre-season following problems in recent years.

Mechanical issues have meant the British team has gone into a new season much less prepared than their rivals due to a lack of running in testing.

While Honda was mostly to blame during their three-year partnership, the same was true in 2018 with Renault, as McLaren completed fewer laps in eight days as Sebastian Vettel did by himself.

“I don’t want to share in detail some of the things we’re doing differently this off-season than we did last season,” CEO Zak Brown commented to RACER.

“[But] we are doing things differently to be more prepared, not just with the performance but we had a lot of reliability issues going into Barcelona testing last year. So we have taken some measures to get ahead of that."

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