Sir Jackie Stewart has remarked it is “unusual” for Lewis Hamilton to move to Ferrari at a late age and said it will be the seven-time World Champion’s “biggest challenge.”

Hamilton will move to Maranello next year at the age of 40 and Stewart reckons it will be an almighty task for the current Mercedes man.

Stewart has been a great supporter of Hamilton and talked about how F1 has changed since he was a driver.

“I’m somewhat surprised by that,” he told RN365 of Hamilton’s move. “Because of becoming 40 and going into a team that, at the present time, has become, very recently, very competitive.

“There’s been very many management structures within the Ferrari Formula 1 team, that’s disruptive when that happens, it is disruptive.

“They’ve now got a more stable situation around them and Lewis is seeing, when you go to the Ferrari factory, you’re impressed. You can go to Red Bull. You can go to McLaren. McLaren, because of the architecture of their factory [but] Ferrari has been a factory for far beyond my life.

“Mr. Fangio just went from Ferrari to Maserati to Mercedes-Benz and whenever he felt if the best car was there for him to drive, he went, and that has become not the same.

“Britain became the capital of the world of top line, particularly Formula 1 grand prix drivers and therefore the equipment that they have. Just look at Milton Keynes. It is the world of Formula 1 and all these other countries, including the great Mercedes Benz, are there because the talent is good and the equipment is good, and that’s what’s got it right now.

“On the other hand, hardly any other brand, if you like to call it, in Formula 1, has had anything like the same continuity as Ferrari have had from such a long time. I nearly drove for Ferrari.

“When I went there, I was taken aback. It was so impressive. The spirit of the place was amazing. The Italians are great people. They explain themselves very carefully and excitingly. And I, like anybody else [was impressed], and I’m sure that’s what Lewis is experiencing too.”

But despite this excitement, Stewart warned that going in at a relatively old age for an F1 driver to an environment like Ferrari will be a big challenge.

“It’s more difficult for him to do it than it would have been if it had been 25 or 30 years,” Stewart said.

“But he’s still got the skill and talent, that is obvious, at the present time, such as the British Grand Prix this year. So it’s unusual but at some point he has to retire as a racing driver and he feels that that time has not yet arrived, and I can understand that.”

“And this is, I think, his biggest challenge.”