Hopes were high when Scuderia Ferrari inked a lucrative contract with seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton, but thus far, those dreams have failed to come to fruition.

And according to Dutch F1 pundit Tim Coronel, the time has come to acknowledge that Lewis Hamilton is firmly the team’s No. 2 driver.

Lewis Hamilton becomes Ferrari’s No. 2

The news that Lewis Hamilton had signed a deal with Scuderia Ferrari for 2025 came as a shock to the world of Formula 1 weeks before the 2024 season had even begun.

It followed a few challenging years at Mercedes; despite winning the bulk of his seven World Drivers’ Championships with the German marque, Hamilton had found the team’s interpretation of the 2022 regulatory set to be lacking, with the hopes that a change of scenery could bring with it a change of pace.

Thus far, it hasn’t.

Ferrari’s SF-25 has proven to be a handful; while both Hamilton and teammate Charles Leclerc are struggling with a lack of rear-end stability, only one of the two men has managed to stand on the podium during official Grands Prix — and Hamilton isn’t that man.

While team principal Fred Vasseur has insisted that both of his drivers are on equal footing, some pundits are asking if we shouldn’t reconsider the team’s internal hierarchy.

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On RacingNews365’s Formula 1 podcast, hosts Tim Coronel and Ruud Dimmers were asked if it was high time Ferrari acknowledge that Hamilton is the team’s No. 2 driver, behind Charles Leclerc — and for Coronel, the answer was an emphatic “yes!”

“It’s very simple. All the figures point to it,” he said.

“The qualifications, the races, everything.

“I think it is very unfortunate, because I am also a bit of a fan of Hamilton, because he did make sure there was a nice battle with Max Verstappen. And he’s always outspoken in his way.

But a favorable opinion isn’t enough to sustain a Formula 1 career, and Coronel has come to admit that “I think he’s slumping a bit.

“I had hoped he would get fired up at the beginning of the year, when he won that sprint race in China, but…. no.”

Coronel likely isn’t the only person who’d been hoping for a Hamilton resurgence after the China sprint race, but Ferrari’s subsequent disqualification in the Grand Prix itself put a damper on any potential enthusiasm.

While Leclerc has struggled with the SF-25 as well, the Monegasque driver has at least found himself celebrating on the podium. For Coronel, it’s clear which of the two men should be considered the leader of the team.

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