Lewis Hamilton told Max Verstappen 'won't be a problem' after Adrian Newey comments

Lewis Hamilton has been told that is "not going to be a problem" for him this year.

The Brit will race in 2025 for , having ended a 12-year career with rivals to pursue an eighth drivers' title with the Scuderia. The Italians finished second in the constructors' championship last year, close to winners - a result which will give Hamilton hope that he has made the right call.

A competitive season has been predicted by many with the four top teams all potentially in contention for title glory. That includes Verstappen who wants to match the achievement managed before only by by winning a fifth-straight drivers' championship.

finished third in the constructors' last year, though. And former F1 driver pointed to comments made by the Milton Keynes squad's former car design chief as he expressed his belief that Verstappen will find it tough to compete this year.

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"Max Verstappen is not going to be Lewis' problem this year," the Colombian told . "I'd be surprised if Red Bull comes out swinging like the last few years. Adrian Newey came out the other day saying that the problems at Red Bull are not as simple as they think it is.

"It's really difficult because when you believe what you're doing is right and all of a sudden things stop working, how far back do you go? And at what point do you go, 'Is what we're doing now right or are we still wrong?'

"If you're saying you're building the car wrong and you realize what you're doing is wrong, then how convinced are you that what you're doing now is completely right? At some point they have just got to go, 'This is what we believe in and this is where we're going to put an effort in and this is what we're going to do and this is what's going to happen'.

"You just start moving sideways or even backwards. If you keep going forward based on the wrong basics you're never going to get out of the hole. And that hole can be very deep, that's the problem."

Montoya believes will have a shot at silverware this year with his new team. But he is backing one of his own former employers to be the favourites for title glory in the final season of the current regulations.

He added: "McLaren seem to have a very good understanding in how to translate everything they are doing into success. McLaren right now are the best team at identifying what is needed, telling the organisation what they are going to do and make it work better."