One of the highly anticipated yet debated things about the 2025 season has been Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari. Not only are the fans excited to see two of the biggest names in the sport come together but also whether the seven-time world champion can finally gun for his eighth title after three years of despair. But Dutch F1 commentator, Nelson Valkenburg doesn’t even believe that the Briton can match his new teammate, Charles Leclerc.
Valkenburg, who commentates for Viaplay, is confident that the #44 driver will have a better showing than in 2024, however, in terms of out-and-out performance, he will still lag behind Leclerc in 2025. “I don’t believe Hamilton will be on par with Leclerc every weekend,” he said on The Race F1 podcast.
“But he’ll be a lot closer than he was this year. I tend to agree with Mark [Hughes] that it could work out really well and I really believe Ferrari is actually in a good place next year. They’re going to go really well for the upcoming season,” he added.
Last season, the Monegasque racing ace led the Scuderia in a very tight championship battle with McLaren for the Constructors’ title. On the other hand, Hamilton was struggling for pace in the W15 — lagging behind his teammate, George Russell almost constantly.
Naturally, Valkenburg has his apprehensions for the 39-year-old squaring off against Leclerc. That said, the root cause of Hamilton’s struggles came from the fact that he had mentally given up on the Mercedes project even before the season had begun. His move to Ferrari could rekindle his mojo, pushing him back to the top.
Hamilton has timed his Ferrari move to perfection
In the ground-effect era, Mercedes has suffered from inconsistencies with their car philosophy whilst Ferrari has seemed a stronger package overall. So, Hamilton chose to jump ship after 12 years with the Silver Arrows.
But the hosts believe that the #44 driver’s move is as much motivated by performance as it is by Frederic Vasseur’s presence at the Maranello-based team as their team principal. Edd Straw explained, “I do think that the ‘Vasseur’ Ferrari is the perfect Ferrari for Hamilton to join.”
Dubbing the Frenchman a “reassuring presence” within the team, Straw added, “I think if it had been under some of the previous regimes it could have gone quite badly wrong.” He lauded Vasseur for having a very balanced approach during both highs and lows within the team.
Moreover, Hamilton and Vasseur go a long way back, too. It was under the Frenchman, back in 2006, that Hamilton had clinched a dominant GP2 (now F2) championship triumph in his rookie season with ART that teed up that all-important call-up to F1 in 2007 with McLaren.
Heading into 2025 and the new regulations era from 2026, Hamilton will hope to emulate the GP2 success with Vasseur to nicely round off his career with championship glory at Ferrari.
