Lewis Hamilton’s age is proving a “handicap” at Ferrari in the F1 2025 season, with the seven-time World Champion unable to keep up without a dominant car at his disposal.

That is the claim of Rene Arnoux, the former Ferrari driver, who says the team are in “a bad way” under team principal Fred Vasseur.

Lewis Hamilton’s age a ‘handicap’ at Ferrari

Having finished just 14 points short of winners McLaren in last year’s title race, Ferrari entered the F1 2025 campaign with ambitions of ending their extended wait for a World Championship.

However, the team currently trail McLaren by a massive 191 points with 10 races completed having been restricted to just three podium finishes – all collected by Hamilton’s team-mate Charles Leclerc – so far this season.

Despite enjoying success in the sprint format, Hamilton has finished no higher than fourth in a main race for Ferrari to date with his move from Mercedes so far proving underwhelming.

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

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

Hamilton, who turned 40 in January, has been restricted to just two wins over the last three-and-a-half seasons with his hopes of claiming a record eighth World Championship in jeopardy.

Speaking to Italian publication La Gazzetta dello Sport, Arnoux – who claimed seven wins in 149 F1 starts for the likes of Ferrari, Renault and Ligier – has claimed that Hamilton’s advanced age is proving a major handicap at Ferrari.

And he believes the British driver will struggle to “keep up” with Leclerc at Ferrari unless he is presented with a dominant car.

Arnoux said: “Leclerc always drives beyond the problems, he spits blood to go fast.

“I liked him a lot at Monte Carlo: he tried very hard to induce Norris to make a mistake, but Lando was very good.

“Hamilton tries hard, but he has the handicap of age.

“At 40, it’s not easy to put up with the athletic effort that these cars require.

“To keep up he should have a car that is significantly faster than the others and that is not the case.”

Ferrari’s muted start to the season has seen Vasseur come under mounting pressure, with multiple reports in the Italian media claiming the next few races are key to the Frenchman’s future.

As reported by PlanetF1.com, Ferrari recently made an approach to Christian Horner, the Red Bull team principal, with Ferrari WEC boss Antonello Coletta emerging as the favourite to replace Vasseur if a change is made.

Despite the team’s successful 2024 season, Ferrari took the bold step of making a number of design changes for this year’s SF-25 car despite 2025 marking the final year of the current regulations.

It emerged at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix that Ferrari were struggling with a fundamental issue related to the car’s ride height, which resulted in Hamilton’s disqualification for excessive skid-block wear at the following race in China.

Ferrari have since being forced to run the SF-25 with a higher ride height than it was designed for at the cost of raw performance.

It is hoped that a major rear-suspension upgrade, expected to arrive in time for Hamilton’s home race, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, will go some way to curing the issue and set Ferrari up for a more successful second half of the season.

Arnoux believes the characteristics of the SF-25 mean Ferrari must find the right setup at the start of each race weekend.

And he reckons “the results speak for themselves” when it comes to the question marks surrounding Vasseur’s future.

He said: “It seems to me that something is always missing.

“To be objective you have to admit that they always struggle to find the right setup and that’s one of the main difficulties of these [current] F1 [cars].

“If you don’t find it right away, the weekend is pretty much compromised.

“The results [under Vasseur] speak for themselves.

“I would love to be wrong and see Ferrari win, but when you hear the team principal say that he is satisfied with a fourth or fifth place?

“I cannot understand these things. I hope they are already working on the 2026 car, otherwise we are in a bad way.”

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Arnoux admitted that he is “not very convinced” that Ferrari’s imminent suspension update will transform the SF-25.

He added: “Maybe something will come, but let’s not forget that the others are not standing still either.

“Adding something new that makes you gain two-to-four tenths is very difficult.

“Hopefully it really is just a problem with the rear suspension, but honestly I’m not very convinced.

“I think this World Championship is already compromised.”

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