Helmut Marko shares whether struggling Lewis Hamilton is an upgrade on Carlos Sainz at Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton achieved his best result since the summer break at the Las Vegas Grand Prix last weekend. But he still left Sin City disappointed.

Hamilton finished as the runner-up behind his Mercedes teammate George Russell. Between his victory in Belgium back in July and the Sao Paulo GP at the start of November, he hadn’t come home any higher than fourth.

But the seven-time world champion was left ruing two mistakes that cost him a potential victory. Both of those came in Q3, denying him a representative lap and condemning him to 10th on the grid.

While Hamilton’s fightback to second was impressive, he showed formidable pace in the final stint with a relentless run of fastest laps. It was clear what could have been.

Mercedes have been F1’s fourth-fastest team this year but the unique Vegas test played into their hands, specifically the extremely low track temperatures. If normality is restored in Qatar this weekend, it may have been his final opportunity to sign off with a win.

Meanwhile, Carlos Sainz scored another strong result for Ferrari in P3. As he edges closer to joining Williams, he’s bagged three podiums in the past four races.

Helmut Marko believes Ferrari will be ‘stronger’ in 2025 despite Lewis Hamilton’s loss of form

During an interview with OE24, Red Bull executive director Helmut Marko was asked whether Hamilton’s move to Ferrari would help or hinder the reigning world champions. It looked at the time like a seismic transfer, but the 39-year-old has endured perhaps his trickiest season to date.

Marko noted that Russell had been ‘dominant’ in the intra-team battle at Mercedes. While he’s only nine points ahead in the standings, he’s beaten him in 13 of the 19 races both have finished, and a whopping 17 out of 22 qualifying sessions.

Ferrari could be the team to dethrone Red Bull this year. They closed the gap on leaders McLaren to 22 points after the Las Vegas GP.

But even though they may be changing a winning formula, Marko believes Fred Vasseur will have a ‘stronger’ line-up. The bigger question, in his eyes, is whether there will be ‘harmony’ in the garage.

“Russell was already more dominant than Hamilton this year,” he said. “In terms of drivers, Ferrari will be stronger next year, although I’m curious to see whether they will have great harmony in the team.

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Hamilton seems to have a good relationship with his future teammate Charles Leclerc. Of course, it will be difficult to maintain that next year, particularly if there’s a championship up for grabs.

But Hamilton and Leclerc have discussed mutual interests, rather than focusing on racing. And that’s likely to continue in 2025 when their on-track rivalry begins in earnest.

It’s likely that Marko is making a pointed reference to the events of the Las Vegas GP. Leclerc ruined his own race by growing too angry with Sainz, Ferrari said in the debrief.

One thing that could help Red Bull is that Mercedes are taking on a rookie who still needs to learn. Hamilton has told Kimi Antonelli to stay off social media next year and remain as single-minded as possible.