Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff says people are wrong to think Lewis Hamilton could face some struggles adapting to his new life at Ferrari.

Hamilton is leaving Mercedes at the end of this season after a 12-year spell to join Ferrari as team-mate to Charles Leclerc.

It will be the first time that he has raced for a non-British-based team in F1, having originally started his career with McLaren in 2007.

Some have suggested that Hamilton could face challenges in adapting to a completely different culture at Maranello.

But the seven-time world champion’s current team boss Wolff is convinced that Hamilton will quickly get to grips with things.

“I think many people say that it’s going to be really difficult,” explained Wolff. “But I think if you say it’s going to be really difficult, then often it’s the opposite.

Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal and General Manager, Scuderia Ferrari, with Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“Ferrari is a great team, great people, lots of emotion and passion and therefore it’s pressure. But I believe they are going to find a way of working with each other.”

Hamilton said earlier this year that he was ignoring the sceptics over a choice he is convinced is correct for him.

“There’s not been a moment where I’ve questioned it, and I’m not swayed by other people’s comments,” he said.

“Even today, there’s people continuing to talk shit, and it will continue on for the rest of the year.

“And I’ll have to just do what I did in the previous time. Only you can know what was right for you. And it will be an exciting time for me.”

The freshness of Antonelli

Wolff added that the emotional ties to Hamilton will likely last forever, but he is also excited at the prospect of a driver shake-up within Mercedes, with young Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli being chosen as the British driver’s successor.

“I think we had such a great run with Lewis over the last 12 years,” continued Wolff. “He’s always going to be part of the family.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes-AMG F1 Team

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“But obviously, as a competitor, when we try to beat him next year, Kimi joining George clearly brings momentum with it, plus youth and freshness.

“You can feel the kind of smile that is in your organisation with having an 18-year-old in a car.

“But having said that, obviously, there will be moments where Lewis’s experience would have benefited the team.

“Kimi is going to be on a steep learning curve, but it’s absolutely the right thing for the team to do and there’s not one person that would have done it differently.”

England captain Ben Stokes is fit to play in the second Test against Pakistan in Multan, coming in alongside pace bowler Matthew Potts.

All-rounder Stokes and Potts replace Chris Woakes and Gus Atkinson in two changes to the side that won a record-breaking first Test.

It has been confirmed the second Test, beginning on Tuesday, will be played on the same pitch used for the first.

Pakistan have made sweeping changes to their squad, dropping former captain Babar Azam and pace bowlers Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi.

The hosts’ selection committee, including captain Shan Masood, coach Jason Gillespie, former skipper Azhar Ali and ex-international umpire Aleem Dar were engaged in a long and public meeting on the square during Monday’s training session.

At the same time, Stokes was bowling in the nets in preparation for his first Test since July.

The 33-year-old injured his hamstring in August and has missed four Tests, including England’s innings-and-47-run win here last week.

The highly unusual decision for the second Test to be played on the same pitch as the first could aid Stokes’ reintroduction to the England side.

Anyone plugged into the Motherwell social media algorithm might be accustomed to the odd bit of Martinez content appearing on their feed.

During the festive period in 2018, he was pictured with one of the chefs at the Moorings Hotel. In 2021, an image circulated of him watching local boys club Motherwell Phoenix train.

“It’s not everyday Roberto Martinez turns up and watches your training session and takes a genuine interest,” they tweeted, external at the time.

The Spaniard was in the midst of a six-year tenure as Belgium boss at that point.

Under Martinez, Belgium celebrated three straight years as Fifa’s top-ranked nation, but he was unable to guide a star-studded team to a major honour.

He did, however, lead them to a World Cup semi-final in 2018 and the last eight of Euro 2020. He lost to the eventual tournament winners on both occasions – France and Italy.

Those six years with Belgium came after guiding Swansea back to the second tier of English football, winning the FA Cup with Wigan and securing a fifth-placed finish at Everton.

But it was nine months in Motherwell that shaped Martinez. It was where he met his future wife, with whom he has raised two children.

There was no romance on the pitch, though. The former midfielder failed to live up to the hype after arriving from Wigan in 2001.

Sixteen appearances, just eight of which were starts, then redundancy – along with 18 other players – when the Fir Park club went into administration.

“Motherwell was a very good experience because it wasn’t a good experience,” he recalled.

“As a manager it has helped me immensely. Being able to understand a dressing room undergoing administration was at the time very hurtful, but it has made me the manager I am now.

“As a whole I really enjoyed Scottish football. It wasn’t a success from a personal point of view at the time, but it has become one of the biggest footballing lessons in my development as a manager.”

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The PTPA says it was set up to “support, protect and advance players’ well-being on and off the court”.

It has so far had a fractious relationship with tennis’ established powers and has not been able to get into the room where key decisions are made.

Nassar said he thinks the system is “patently unfair to every player, Jannik included” and highlighted the case of Britain’s Tara Moore.

Moore was Britain’s leading women’s doubles player when she was provisionally banned for testing positive for nandrolone and boldenone in May 2022.

She was cleared by an independent tribunal in December 2023, but 10 months later is still waiting for the ITIA’s appeal against that decision to be heard by Cas.

“I have many reservations about how every single one of those cases is handled,” Nassar continued.

“In Tara, here is a player who won her appeal, and certainly wasn’t the number one player in her sport, but she still missed 18 months.

“She’s still dealing with an appeal and fighting to get her reputation back. There is no winning in that case.”

Wada’s appeal against the Sinner verdict may well be heard more quickly.

An appeal by the former world number one Simona Halep was heard just over four months after it was registered, with the verdict issued by Cas a further month after the hearing.

It was, however, only last Thursday that the panel’s full reasoning was published.

Cas cut Halep’s suspension for testing positive for roxadustat from four years to nine months but concluded that despite steps actively taken by her to ascertain the contents of the supplement, “there was fault on the player’s part”.

Wada will also be hoping to prove fault or negligence on Sinner’s part.

The initial tribunal decided Sinner was inadvertently contaminated with clostebol by his physiotherapist, Giacomo Naldi, who had applied an over-the-counter spray containing the banned substance to treat a cut on his own hand.

TNT SPORTS refused to show footage as a rugby star was forced to leave the field on crutches after a horror injury.

The incident occurred on Saturday during the Gallagher Premiership rugby clash between Leicester Tigers and Northampton Saints.

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It saw new Tigers boss Michael Cheika bag his first home win as the hosts secured a 24-8 victory.

Handre Pollard helped himself to three conversions and a penalty in the rout.

But the result was overshadowed by a horror injury and sin bin.

Leicester flanker Tommy Reffell was given the yellow for his tackle on Northampton’s Sam Graham.

The No8 crashed to the ground awkwardly and was in visible pain as he rolled on the floor.

One of his legs had bent the opposite way when coming down from the challenge.

And Graham could even be heard crying out on the ref’s mic.

TNT Sports then refused to show any replays, with commentator David Flatman saying: “I thought it was a hell of an impact there from Reffell.

“Immediately when you see that, you think it’s a massive shoulder impact on his knee.”

Fellow commentator Nick Mullins added: “Sam Graham is in a lot of pain. The replay is not a pleasant one so we are not going to show you it.”

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Tigers star Reffell was then bemused as he was shown a yellow card for a dangerous tackle, with the Welshman claiming it was legal as Graham was stretchered off the pitch.

But ref Anthony Woodthorpe was adamant it was illegal and was heard explaining his decision on the mic, with Graham later appearing on crutches.

He told Reffell and Leicester captain Julian Montoya: “The tackle is illegal because he’s already on his knees. Tommy, you’re the man who made the tackle.

“He’s on his knees when he makes his tackle, so it’s an illegal tackle and a dangerous action, so it’s going to be a yellow card.

“We understand it’s a wrap but he needs to be on his feet to make the tackle.”

TNT pundit Austin Healy backed Reffell though, adding: “I understand it’s foul play if you are on the floor and you make a tackle.

“But he wasn’t already on the floor. He went to the floor to make the tackle, that’s not the same.”