Lewis Hamilton is finding out that he is not “the baby of the house” at Ferrari in F1 2025 with Charles Leclerc the team’s favourite son.

That is the claim of former Lotus and McLaren boss Eric Boullier, who says Hamilton is “struggling a bit” to adapt to life at Ferrari after so many years at Mercedes.

Lewis Hamilton not ‘the baby of the house’ at Ferrari

Hamilton arrived at Ferrari at the beginning of F1 2025 with ambitions of ending his wait for a record eighth World Championship.

Despite success in the sprint format, however, he is yet to reach the podium with his new team having finished no higher than fourth across the first nine races of the season.

Hamilton has struggled to match the pace of Leclerc, in his seventh full season with Ferrari, who claimed the Scuderia’s third podium of the season at the recent Spanish Grand Prix, a race in which Hamilton was instructed to swap positions with his team-mate.

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Boullier led the Lotus-Renault team to success with the likes of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean across 2012/23 before a four-year spell as McLaren’s racing director.

And the Frenchman has claimed that Hamilton is discovering that Leclerc is “the baby of the house” having came through Ferrari’s junior academy, likening Hamilton’s situation to that of Fernando Alonso at McLaren in 2007.

He told RN365: “When you’ve won everything and you’re the GOAT [greatest of all time], I understand the challenge and Ferrari is Ferrari.

“It shows a couple of things. Changing a team is quite significant for a driver.

“And the higher you are, being with Mercedes for so many years and going to Ferrari, another top team, it’s more difficult to adapt than switching to a midfield team.”

“I remember Fernando at McLaren in 2007 and he had the impression the team was not pushing for him, because the baby of the house was Lewis.

“Lewis is now realising this at Ferrari, that the baby of the house is not him, it’s Charles.

“We can see in his communication with his engineer that he’s struggling a bit.

“It’s going to take time, I guess.”

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Boullier went on to claim that Hamilton “doesn’t feel at home yet” at Ferrari as he adjusts to the team’s unique culture.

And he compared the situation to his signing of Grosjean for the 2012 season despite warnings that the move would backfire.

He added: “I’ve seen it with Grosjean, bringing him in.

“People said: ‘No, we don’t want him. He’s rubbish!’

“I said, ‘He’s not rubbish. He’s podium material.’

“It took them one year to tell me: ‘You are right boss, he is not too bad.’

“The culture has a huge impact on your integration into a team and I guess this is a challenge for Lewis.

“We know he’s fast, we know he’s the greatest of all time.

“But you can see that one [driver] feels at home – Charles – and the other doesn’t feel at home yet.”

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