Lewis Hamilton became the face of Mercedes, winning six World titles between 2014 and 2020, but when the ground effect era began two years later, a difficult period in his career started. With just two victories in the last three years, Hamilton’s stat pile-up hit a roadblock, and his struggles in qualifying grew tenfold.
In 2024, his former Mercedes teammate George Russell outqualified him 19-5 in Grand Prix qualifying.
Hamilton simply could not adjust to the current generation of cars, per Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff. “This generation of car doesn’t suit Lewis,” the Austrian said in an interview with Auto Motor und Sport last month. “It’s more noticeable in qualifying than in the race“.
With the regulations remaining stable going into 2025, Hamilton’s struggles are expected to continue at his new team, Ferrari. Moreover, with Charles Leclerc—one of the fastest drivers in qualifying—as his teammate, Hamilton could not have a more difficult benchmark.
However, former Mercedes Strategy Director and current Williams team principal James Vowles is confident that Hamilton can turn his fortunes around at Ferrari. After all, in the 45-year-old’s opinion, no driver in F1 is as good at reinventing himself as Hamilton.
“The one thing about Lewis that I know about him is that he reinvents himself every winter,” Vowles told Sky Sports in a recent interview. “He comes back stronger every winter and with every competitor, he’s been up against, he finds a way to improve himself, to become alongside them if he is behind them“.
| Sir Lewis Hamilton “reinvents himself every winter”, says James Vowles :
“The one thing about Lewis that I know about him, is that he reinvents himself every winter. He comes back stronger every winter and with every competitor he’s been up against, he finds a way to improve… pic.twitter.com/8LLtDOyw7L
— sim (@sim3744) February 6, 2025
Therefore, in Vowles’ words, “You can never write him off“.
Former F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya also seems to agree with the Williams team principal, revealing that he expects the 40-year-old to be even better than Leclerc.
When Hamilton will outperform Leclerc
Montoya understands that Hamilton will need time to find his footing at Ferrari, as the Maranello-based squad has a very different culture from Mercedes, where the 40-year-old has spent over a decade. However, the Colombian former driver believes it won’t take the Briton too long to adapt.
“Lewis is mature enough to appreciate that in the short-term he is going to struggle a little bit, learning the Ferrari thing,” Montoya said per GrandPrix247. “Give it about six or seven races, and if the car is competitive, Lewis is going to win everything“.
The Pirelli test timings in Barcelona suggest that Hamilton may need time to match Leclerc. He completed 74 laps with a best time of 1m 16.759s, while Leclerc, despite covering the same distance, set a significantly faster lap of 1m 14.971s.
However, these times should be taken with a pinch of salt, as all drivers followed different testing programs.
Fans will likely get a clearer picture of the pecking order during the first Grand Prix weekend in Australia from March 13-16, as teams often sandbag in testing. That said, the Bahrain test from February 26-28 could offer some early clues about where teams and drivers stand heading into the season opener.
