With Lewis Hamilton struggling massively in the past three seasons, many are debating whether he gave up on Mercedes or whether his abilities have started to decline. There is a notion that moving to Ferrari will be the impetus he needs to rediscover his form. But can he? Well, at least in 2025, it seems difficult for the 40-year-old to rediscover his peak form from his Mercedes heyday.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has already explained how the ground-effect era cars do not suit Hamilton’s driving style. “He brakes late and drives the car aggressively into the corners. The car and the tires sometimes don’t forgive that. It’s more noticeable in qualifying than in the race,” the Austrian said in an interview with AMuS while talking about why the #44 driver struggled against George Russell.
Last year, Hamilton’s struggles in Grand Prix qualifying were evident as Russell out-qualified him at 19 out of the 24 races. Throughout last season, Hamilton gave various reasons for why he struggled — at times he simply wanted to experiment with different setups, knowing that he did not have the pace to fight with the likes of McLaren, Ferrari, and Red Bull.
On other occasions, the Briton cited issues with the W15’s balance. While Hamilton had several excuses for why he struggled to deliver last season, Le Mans legend Tom Kristensen hopes he doesn’t carry forward the same to Ferrari as well.
“I don’t want to see him fall in between and get in the inconsistency, quite bad qualifying situations, and being there in front of the camera and having to come up with different, different excuses of not performing,” Kristensen said on the RacingNews365 podcast. “That was getting very tough to see.”
Lewis Hamilton already OUT of Qualifying ❌ pic.twitter.com/Ne2ujVdpFb
— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) October 19, 2024
Looking at Hamilton’s struggles with Mercedes, Kristensen believes it was right for both parties to part ways. The Danish former driver seconds the notion that moving to Ferrari could help the #44 driver fight for his record eighth title.
But it could all go wrong for Hamilton, as he will team up with Charles Leclerc, arguably the best qualifier on the current grid, and a driver who can expose the Briton’s recent weaknesses.
F1 expert explains how the Hamilton-Leclerc dynamic will unfold
On the same podcast, Ian Parkes began by explaining that the predominant reason why Hamilton decided to move to Ferrari was his past relationship with team principal Frederic Vasseur, with whom he achieved incredible success in the junior formulas.
But Parkes did acknowledge that a move such as this will come with its own set of challenges. One of them is to match eight-time Grand Prix winner Leclerc, who has already acclimatized himself to the Ferrari culture during his six seasons at the Italian outfit so far.
However, Parkes is confident that if any driver is capable of rediscovering his qualifying form, then it is undoubtedly Hamilton. After all, his prowess over one lap is evident with his record of 104 pole positions.
If that happens, Parkes believes Vasseur will have a luxury problem on his hands — managing two drivers with championship-winning caliber. If the intra-team battle between the two gets too intense, Vasseur and Ferrari may have to step in and impose team orders.
