Lewis Hamilton joined Ferrari to become Formula 1’s first-ever eight-time champion. If he achieves that feat at Maranello, it would be especially poetic.
Michael Schumacher, the man with whom he’s currently tied at the top of the leaderboard, is Ferrari’s greatest legend after winning five titles with the Italian giants. All of those came in the most dominant run the sport has ever seen between 2000 and 2004.
A 2025 triumph for Hamilton always looked unlikely given the adaptation process he faced. But it can be virtually ruled out after just five races.
The 40-year-old is already 68 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri. Ferrari are multiple tenths slower than McLaren and Hamilton himself wrote off the remainder of the season after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
It already sounds like he’s pinning his hopes on the 2026 regulation changes. But David Coulthard says Hamilton is underperforming, and the rule reset won’t necessarily be an automatic cure.
Michael Schumacher couldn’t gel with the 2012 Mercedes – Lewis Hamilton has same issue at Ferrari
Hamilton’s Mercedes predecessor Schumacher initially walked away from F1 in 2006 before making a comeback with the Silver Arrows in 2010. He was already 41 years old at that point.
While he added another podium to his tally and produced a memorable pole lap in Monaco (before a five-place penalty), the move was a major disappointment overall. Nico Rosberg nearly doubled Schumacher’s points haul in their first season together.
The Regenmeister got closer in 2011 but the gap opened back up again in 2012 before they parted ways. Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn said his problems were twofold – his driving style didn’t suit the car, and the car didn’t suit him.
| SEASON | TOT | MSC | ROS |
| 2010 | 214 | 33.6% | 66.4% |
| 2011 | 165 | 46.1% | 53.9% |
| 2012 | 142 | 34.5% | 65.5% |
“He is so determined and you can see that in his driving,” Brawn said, via Sky Sports. “The bits where it’s not quite working are not because of skill or bravery, it’s because the technique needs tuning and the car needs tuning.
“It’s odd places where he’s losing time and that’s why we think he’ll sort it out and we’ll sort it out and get to where we need to.”
Mercedes never managed to ‘sort it out’, and now Hamilton is having the same problem at Ferrari. Fred Vasseur is committed to making a breakthrough, but it doesn’t sound like it will come easily.
Is Lewis Hamilton at risk of becoming the next Daniel Ricciardo?
Ferrari’s theory is that Hamilton is grappling with a ‘complete’ loss of balance right now. He complained during the race in Saudi Arabia that he was sliding around every corner.
Speaking on The Race F1 podcast this week, journalist Scott Mitchell-Malm noted the parallels with Daniel Ricciardo at McLaren. He may need to stop trying to fuse two driving styles and stick with what comes naturally.
“It feels a little bit like he’s becoming like Daniel Ricciardo at McLaren in his second season there,” Mitchell-Malm said. “He’s trying to jam his driving style into the mould of a driving style that works more for the Ferrari, and it’s not working. It’s not coming naturally.
“He’s maybe thinking too consciously about it. Would he just be better off driving the Ferrari how he wants to drive, and knowing that he might be a tenth or two off Leclerc, but he won’t be half a second off?”
Giedo van der Garde says Hamilton was ‘raised’ on a certain style and he can’t easily abandon it. The new generation of drivers are apparently more comfortable with the demands of the ground-effect cars, which were introduced in 2022.
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