Lewis Hamilton may “already” be thinking of retiring from Formula 1 after a difficult start to the F1 2025 season with Ferrari.

That is the claim of Derek Warwick, the active FIA steward, who can envisage the seven-time World Champion walking away if his situation does not improve.

Could Lewis Hamilton just give up and walk away from Ferrari?

Hamilton arrived at Ferrari last winter with hopes of ending his extended search for a record eighth World Championship.

Yet despite converting pole position into victory in the China sprint race in March, the former Mercedes driver has struggled for pace alongside new team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Hamilton has finished no higher than fourth on a Sunday in Ferrari colours, with Leclerc claiming all of the team’s three podium finishes so far in F1 2025.

Lewis Hamilton vs Charles Leclerc: Ferrari head-to-head scores for F1 2025

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

Warwick, who most recently appeared as a steward at last month’s Miami Grand Prix, believes Hamilton may have underestimated the challenge of joining a new team after 12 seasons with Mercedes between 2013 and 2024.

And he fears Hamilton will walk away from F1 entirely if he does not find a breakthrough soon.

Warwick told a gambling platform: “I don’t know why Lewis Hamilton can’t get going in a Ferrari. I think that’s an enigma really.

“I think we all saw him moving to Ferrari as a great opportunity to win his eighth world title.

“The car is not to his liking at the minute. Most critics will say he’s a seven-times World Champion, 105 grand prix wins, surely you adapt to the car you’ve got, because Charles has.

“But for some reason he can’t get used to it. I think people underestimate, including Lewis, maybe how difficult it is to join a new team.

“How to get used to their systems, their debriefs, getting them to understand what you want and vice versa.

“And the most important thing on the car is probably the steering wheel because there are so many different adjustments you can do to the steering wheel, maybe he hasn’t quite got on top of that.

“Do I want Lewis to win races and challenge for the World Championship?

“Yes. I think he deserves it. I think he deserves that eighth world title.

“It’s not going to happen this year. And I think if it carries on the way it is at the minute, I suspect he’s already thinking of stopping.

“I don’t see him running half a second behind Charles, and also running in sixth, seventh and eighth place.

“He’s had enough of that for the last three years, with Mercedes, so he needs to get a bit of confidence back.

“In China, when he won the sprint race, I thought that was the turning point, but the car’s still not to his liking.”

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Warwick’s latest comments come after he defended the FIA’s decision to impose a 10-second penalty and three penalty points on Verstappen for his ugly clash with Mercedes driver George Russell at the recent Spanish Grand Prix.

Nico Rosberg, the 2016 World Champion and former Mercedes driver, led calls for Verstappen to be disqualified on the spot for the collision at Turn 5, claiming the World Champion appeared to “ram [Russell] full on.”

However, Warwick has defended the punishment handed out to Verstappen, describing it as the “perfect” course of action to the Red Bull driver’s “absolutely wrong” act.

He said: “I think everyone has to realise that if you are a driver who is used to winning like Max, it is very difficult when things go against you in a race that on paper, with three stops, looks like you could win.

“And we all know he’s a winner.

“Should he have done what he did, in Turn 5 with George Russell? Absolutely not. Did he get a penalty for that? Yes.

“Sebastian Vettel was once given a 10-second drive-through penalty in Baku after an incident with Lewis Hamilton [in 2017], but he deliberately drove into Lewis.

“Whereas if you watch this video, it seems to me that although he dove in, he then did turn away from George, but momentum pushed him against George.

“It is absolutely wrong and the FIA was right to give him a penalty.

“I think many people would say he should have been given a suspension as an example to young karters, and they are probably right, but I think the penalty was perfect.

“You have to look at each incident individually. This is not what I like to see.”

Warwick’s comments are likely to reignite the debate over a conflict of interest among FIA stewards following a high-profile case involving Johnny Herbert, the three-time F1 race winner, last season.

Herbert left his role as an FIA steward ahead of the F1 2025 season after repeatedly criticising Verstappen on gambling platforms last year.

Mohammed Ben Sulayem, the president of the FIA, acknowledged earlier this year that Herbert’s position in the stewards’ room had become untenable alongside his media work.

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