Emerson Fittipaldi believes Ferrari still see Lewis Hamilton as an ‘outstanding’ driver amid an underwhelming start to the seven-time F1 champion’s time at the Scuderia.
Thousands of the Tifosi lined the public roads around Fiorano to watch the 40-year-old have his first drives with the Prancing Horse before the 2025 F1 season started. But Hamilton has so far not turned their optimism into results after struggling to adapt in the first five rounds.
While Hamilton won his first event with Ferrari from pole position in the Shanghai Sprint, he is yet to finish a Grand Prix higher than P5. His average finish is also P7.25 and his average in qualifying is P7.4 as Hamilton regularly struggles with the light rear end of Ferrari’s 2025 car.
His latest plight came in Saudi Arabia as Charles Leclerc secured Ferrari their first Grand Prix podium of the year after being faster than Hamilton in every session except Q1. Now, Ferrari accept Hamilton must change his driving style for the Briton to tap into the SF-25’s potential.
Emerson Fittipaldi snubs Lewis Hamilton to name Max Verstappen as his favourite 2025 F1 driver
Yet despite Hamilton’s endless lack of pace in Saudi Arabia and sitting just seventh in the F1 drivers’ championship with 31 points to Leclerc’s 47 for P5, two-time F1 champion Fittipaldi believes the Scuderia still rate the Stevenage-born star very highly while he strives to adapt.
READ MORE: Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton’s life outside F1 from net worth to family
| Position | Drivers’ Championship | Points |
| 1 |
Oscar Piastri |
99 |
| 2 |
Lando Norris |
89 |
| 3 |
Max Verstappen |
87 |
| 4 |
George Russell |
73 |
| 5 |
Charles Leclerc |
47 |
| 6 |
Andrea Kimi Antonelli |
38 |
| 7 |
Lewis Hamilton |
31 |
Fittipaldi told AS about Hamilton’s start at the Scuderia: “It’s a challenge to join Ferrari and prove you can win a world championship with another team. It’s a dream for everyone to drive for them. I’ve never been able to drive for Ferrari.
“For them, he’s an outstanding driver, very talented. He won the Chinese Sprint and works with [team principal Fred] Vasseur, as he has done for many years in F2 and F3.”
Yet while the 1972 and 1974 F1 champion believes Ferrari still rate Hamilton very highly, the Briton is not Fittipaldi’s favourite driver on the 2025 grid. Instead, the Sao Paulo native takes Red Bull star Max Verstappen as Fittipaldi’s favourite current driver as he targets a fifth title.
Fittipaldi added: “I think Verstappen is at an exceptional level, in the prime of his career. The race he had in Brazil last year was extraordinary. He’s a phenomenon and it won’t be easy for McLaren to compete with him.”
McLaren warned Max Verstappen ‘won’t be easy’ to beat to the 2025 F1 drivers’ title
Fittipaldi won his second F1 drivers’ title with McLaren in 1974 to also lift the Woking crew’s first championship. But since Hamilton secured the team’s 12th title so far in 2008, McLaren have not won another drivers’ title, yet may win the title with Oscar Piastri or Lando Norris.
Piastri got the lead of the drivers’ championship for the first time in the 24-year-old’s career by winning in Jeddah after Verstappen’s five-second penalty in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix for leaving the track and gaining an advantage shortcutting the T1-2 run off to keep the lead.
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Verstappen had scored pole position for the second time this season in Saudi Arabia, having beaten Norris and Piastri by 0.012 and 0.044 seconds in qualifying in Japan. The 27-year-old is getting everything he can from the RB21 with it not at the absolute level of McLaren’s car.
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