Lewis Hamilton must show signs of successfully integrating within six months of starting to race for Ferrari, believes Ralf Schumacher.

The seven-time F1 World Champion is starting a new chapter in his Formula 1 career as he swaps his Mercedes for Ferrari for 2025, as he looks to shake off what has been a tough year alongside George Russell.

Ralf Schumacher: I admire Lewis Hamilton’s honesty

Hamilton’s single-lap pace was largely absent in F1 2024, resulting in Russell defeating him in the qualifying battle 19-5 over the season. It led to many compromised Sundays for Hamilton, starting from further back on the grid than Russell proved the car was capable of.

But Hamilton’s legendary race prowess remained largely intact, with his Las Vegas Grand Prix, in particular, displaying this as he romped from 10th on the grid to second place and only a small distance behind Russell after hunting down his young teammate.

But the tough qualifying sessions led Hamilton to publicly acknowledge some self-doubts, including a statement in Qatar where he answered an interviewer saying that the issues aren’t being caused by him by saying that “maybe I’m not quick anymore”.

This openness is genuine, Ralf Schumacher believes, with the German saying that he is seeing evidence of Hamilton’s age – he turns 40 in January – starting to catch up with the seven-time F1 World Champion.

“Yes, I know that from my own experience,” he said, referring to his own final years in Formula 1 in the mid-2000s, in an interview with Germany’s Sport1.de.

“Suddenly you ask yourself why your teammate can drive faster. The film suddenly runs faster as you get older. Especially in qualifying and, as I mentioned, especially when braking. Then you desperately try to overrun the car – and the chain of errors begins.

“In the race, the cars are up to five seconds slower than in qualifying. Everything is even more manageable there. Twice this season, I’ve noticed exactly this kind of self-doubt in Lewis. During his victory in Silverstone, when he was overjoyed and said he thought he had forgotten how to drive. And after qualifying in Qatar, when he said in frustration that he was no longer good enough. I think his dejection came from the heart and was genuine. I admire his honesty.”

While Ferrari’s Fred Vasseur has downplayed any concerns over Hamilton’s form as he seeks a fresh start with the Scuderia, Schumacher said there is a danger of him not seeing out his contract if he is unable to bounce back from his struggles.

“The danger is there if everything goes badly,” he said.

“I believe that if Lewis realises that he is no longer living up to his own standards, he will say so.”

Carlos Sainz lost his seat with the Scuderia to make way for Hamilton, with the popular Spaniard an innocent victim of timing as his own contract came up for renewal at the same time Hamilton made himself available to Formula 1’s most illustrious team.

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But, should Hamilton and Ferrari not gel in what will be a major cultural shock for the British driver, Schumacher believes Hamilton won’t be given much leeway by the Italian media as the expectations for him are so high.

“The expectations are high, as are the emotions,” he said.

“People won’t be patient for more than six months if things don’t go well. He is not used to the pressure from outside. The clocks tick a little differently in Italy.

“Even in Michael’s time, they wanted to sack Jean Todt when the successes took too long. Michael prevented that and it came to a happy end after all. Unfortunately, I doubt that with Lewis. But maybe he’ll be lucky enough for the car to suit him. Then everything could turn out very well. But I have my doubts.”

While then-two-time F1 World Champion Michael Schumacher, Ralf’s brother, was able to turn Ferrari around as he worked with a ‘dream team’ of team boss Jean Todt and technical director Ross Brawn, Schumacher said he doesn’t see Hamilton being able to do the same thing.

“The biggest difference is that Michael, among many other qualities, was able to develop a car perfectly for his driving style together with the engineers,” he said.

“Lewis can’t do that. He’s never been able to do that, if you listen carefully to what the Mercedes technicians say.

“Toto Wolff has emphasised more than once that a driver should step on the gas and the engineers should develop. But he also said that because his drivers were apparently incapable of giving the right input.

“Michael was completely different. He always gave his confidants like Ross Brawn or Jean Todt the direction. That makes things even more difficult for Lewis – because Charles Leclerc is the top dog. Everyone in the team knows him. For Lewis, everything is new at Ferrari. What’s more, Michael came to Ferrari as the current world champion and was much younger. That’s not the case with Lewis.”

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