F1 title with Ferrari would be my greatest

Clear was announced as a replacement for Ferrari's ousted engineering director Pat Fry in December 2014, leaving his role as Hamilton's performance engineer.

He spent the first seven months of last year working for Mercedes before beginning the move to Italy to take up his new role at the start of 2016.

The Briton was Villeneuve's engineer during his title winning season with Williams in 1997 and then joined BAR, sticking with the team through its guises as Honda, Brawn and now Mercedes.

"The championship that I'm going to win with Ferrari is going to be at a new level," said Clear, who will be responsible for trackside operations at his new team.

"It will be better than we ever were when I won championships with other teams and that's the same for all of us.

"What I know about winning championships is no longer enough to win championships so I have to evolve as well.

"I'm not coming here and saying 'I know what you need to do to win the championship' because that won't work anymore.

"I'm developing with the team and we're confident we're developing in a direction to win a championship with Ferrari."

Clear said that his task at Ferrari was more about refining rather than making wholesale changes.

"I'm hugely impressed by the race team I've inherited," he said.

"[Technical director] James Allison has done a hell of a job getting the guys motivated and positive.

"There is a lot of positivity in the team so that has not taken too much of my stress.

"This is a team that wasn't hanging around waiting for me to arrive. They were already on the case.

"My responsibility is to get the trackside operations working efficiently and ultimately delivering the performance that is in the car. We have got to deliver."