Martin Brundle has his say on Angela Cullen's return with Lewis Hamilton

F1 commentator Martin Brundle believes Lewis Hamilton reuniting with Angela Cullen was a “very smart” move as he acclimatises to life at Ferrari.

Hamilton’s move to Ferrari is F1’s biggest story heading into the new season, which kicks off in Australia this weekend.

It’s a big change for Hamilton, who spent the last 12 years at Mercedes.

He could not bring his long-time race engineer, Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington, to Maranello.

Hamilton has been reunited with Cullen, who was his physiotherapist between 2016 and 2023.

Looking ahead to Hamilton’s first season in red, Brundle believes it was a clever move to bring Cullen back into the fold while acknowledging the more significant role of Marc Hynes - who is Hamilton’s manager.

“As the old adage goes, a change is as good as a rest and the Ferrari move does seem to be working for Lewis. I’ve never seen him smile so much,” Brundle wrote on the Sky Sports F1 website.

“While we’ve seen in the past the likes of Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen, Michael Schumacher and Niki Lauda return after time out of the sport, Lewis has never had a break from F1 since he started in 2007, but I do think this Ferrari move is the equivalent for him.

“We’re seeing that just observing him and reading his words. He seems really energised and invigorated by this new opportunity.

“Lewis has been very smart too. Obviously, he knows team boss Fred Vasseur very well from times of old, but he’s had an advance party at Ferrari to integrate as quickly as he can into the team. Angela Cullen has returned, while Marc Hynes has been back in the fold for a year or two now already.”

Hamilton gears up for first race at Ferrari

Hamilton will race for Ferrari for the first time at this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix.

The 40-year-old has a stunning record at Albert Park, taking pole position at every race in Melbourne between 2014 and 2019.

While his qualifying record is outstanding, he’s only converted one of those pole positions into a race win (2015).

However, the good news for Hamilton is that Ferrari’s race day record in Melbourne is impressive.

Ferrari have won four of the last six races in Australia.

Sebastian Vettel won the 2017 and 2018 races, while Valtteri Bottas beat Hamilton to the 2019 victory.

When F1 returned to Australia in 2022, Charles Leclerc dominated from pole to take the win.

Max Verstappen won the 2023 event, but Ferrari took a 1-2 finish last year.