I joined Ferrari on gut feeling, says Hamilton

A gut feeling drove Lewis Hamilton to sign for Ferrari, Formula One's most successful driver told LinkedIn on Thursday, at the start of his bid to return the sport's most successful team to former glories.

Hamilton made his track debut for Ferrari on Wednesday, almost a year after announcing his shock decision to leave Mercedes, where he won six of his seven world championships.

"Ultimately, every new opportunity is a total leap of faith. None of us can predict the future so changing jobs, or in my case teams, is always going to come with some level of risk," Hamilton said in an interview for LinkedIn's "Get Hired" newsletter on Thursday.

"But I believe there's more of a risk in staying somewhere you're comfortable and in getting complacent."

The 40-year-old Briton completed his first test drive for the Italian team, who have not won a world driver's title since 2007, at their home base in Maranello.

"Call it instinct or a gut feeling, but I knew that signing with Ferrari was the right move for me and that it would give me the challenge I needed," Hamilton said.

"There are so many incredible people in the team that I can't wait to work with, and I have total faith that we'll achieve great things together."

The Formula One season begins with the Australian Grand Prix from March 14-16.