Lewis Hamilton joined Ferrari with a renewed vigor of wanting to regain his lost glory in F1. Having not been in title contention for the past three seasons, the Briton was keen to change that status quo in the red overalls. However, the start of the 2025 season has been nothing but a sheer disappointment for him.
With Ferrari not even close to fighting for race wins, which was the case last season, the seven-time world champion has fallen into the depressing demeanor he had during his struggling times at Mercedes in 2023-24. While Hamilton was always going to face a steep learning curve at Ferrari, he didn’t expect such a tough start to life in Maranello.
There is no doubt that the #44 driver is still struggling with the ground-effect concept of cars, which work differently from his natural driving style. However, F1 journalist Ian Parkes also blames Ferrari for dropping the ball with their 2025 challenger.
Firstly, he highlighted that Hamilton’s job in 2025 was to familiarize himself with the Ferrari car’s quirks, the team’s work ethic, engineers, and their overall work environment before going all guns blazing in 2026 to fight for the title. However, with Ferrari not being able to deliver on their promise, Hamilton’s dream story may see a different ending.
The Scuderia had been actively working to build upon their race-winning potential from 2024 to make the final step into championship contention this season. And even if they failed to take that final step, Hamilton had the assurance that they would get there with the 2026 regulations change.
So, Parkes believes that if they fail to produce a championship contender next year as well, the seven-time world champion may call time on his F1 career while giving up on his dream for the eighth title. “If it [Ferrari] isn’t [competitive in 2026], if he [Hamilton] can’t [fight for the title], then I think next year [2026] might very well be Lewis’ last [season] in Formula 1″, he said on RacingNews365’s podcast.
The main purpose of Hamilton’s mega move to Ferrari was to chase his elusive eighth title. But looking at where Ferrari currently stand, it seems a bit far-fetched that the 2025 season would yield anything promising on that front for the Briton. Still, Parkes feels they must have something in the tank and said, “Come on Ferrari, get your act together.”
Martin Brundle on Lewis Hamilton:https://t.co/mGv6XC26nd pic.twitter.com/24hVwxNdVn
— PlanetF1 (@Planet_F1) April 21, 2025
As things stand, Ferrari’s SF-25 seems like the fourth-fastest car and way behind the front-runners, McLaren, and even lacking pace to the struggling Red Bull. Ironically, Hamilton’s former team, Mercedes, has also shown decent pace so far with their W16 seeming a lot less problematic than its predecessors in the ground-effect era.
In fact, former F1 racer David Hobbs also claimed that the #44 driver got out of the Mercedes car “at the wrong time”. However, it’s quite easy to make this assessment in hindsight. On top of that, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff himself admitted that Hamilton simply hasn’t been comfortable with the ground-effect car concept.
So, it is anyone’s guess whether Hamilton would’ve performed better in the W16 or not. Regardless, with age catching up to the Briton, he knows his time in F1 is soon going to be over, and that is why he needs to find success with Ferrari as soon as possible.
