It’s safe to say that Lewis Hamilton’s final seasons with Mercedes before joining Ferrari didn’t go as well as anyone would have liked.
Before Lewis Hamilton won an emotional final British Grand Prix with the Silver Arrows, he had gone nearly 1000 days without standing on the top step of the podium.
While he added another victory to his impressive tally at Spa, that only came as a result of teammate George Russell being disqualified after the chequered flag.
In his 18th Formula 1 season, Hamilton will finally get to experience what it’s like racing for Ferrari in F1.
It’s a combination that many have dreamed of for some time, but as his time with Mercedes went on – and proved more and more successful with each passing season – it looked less likely to ever come to fruition.
However, Hamilton’s testing debut for Ferrari isn’t far away and there are only a few weeks left before he’s getting to grips with their 2025 car during pre-season testing in Bahrain.
Journalist Mark Hughes was speaking on The Race F1 Podcast and previewing how he thinks Hamilton will fare once he arrives at Maranello.
He believes that one ‘extreme’ issue he struggled to deal with while racing for Mercedes won’t be as much of a factor at Ferrari this year.
Lewis Hamilton can hustle his new Ferrari after facing ‘extreme’ issue at Mercedes
Hughes was asked what would decide the fight between Hamilton and Leclerc and said: “Well, at its most basic level, raw speed.
“After the season Lewis has just had where he’s been comprehensively outperformed by a teammate for the first time in his career. That’s where the question marks are.
“There’s no questions around Charles Leclerc’s speed.
“And so if anything, Lewis is coming in a little bit as the underdog despite the unparalleled career CV. But I don’t think it’s as clear-cut as that in reality.
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“There’s a feasible reason why Lewis has struggled with this particular Mercedes, to do with how little it pitches and dives and how that sort of really doesn’t work with the way he naturally likes to drive the car.
“The Ferrari doesn’t seem to be quite so extreme in that and seems to be a car that you can hustle on corner entry as Charles Leclerc showed many times.
“So that’s the trait of last year’s car and it’s something which has been in the Ferrari DNA for the last three or four years.
“So it wouldn’t be a surprise if it was in the 2025 car as well. So that being the case, will it dovetail well with Lewis’s driving style? If so, I think we’re in for an incredible competition between them.”
Ferrari showed in 2024 that they can give Lewis Hamilton a race winning F1 car
Hamilton annouced his departure from Mercedes before last season started, giving him a full year to say farewell to his thousands of fans at each track he visited throughout the campaign.
The Brit was emotional as each milestone passed for the final time and proved with his last performance in the W15 that he still has it, driving through the pack to finish P4 and finish ahead of Russell.
| CATEGORY | VOL. | RANK |
| Races | 228 | 1st |
| Championships | 6 | 1st |
| Race wins | 82 | 1st |
| Pole positions | 78 | 1st |
| Podiums | 148 | 1st |
Martin Brundle even predicted Hamilton’s last-lap move on Russell and that hunger will give team principal Frederic Vasseur plenty of faith that he made the right call replacing Carlos Sainz with the seven-time world champion.
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Ferrari would have enjoyed Hamilton’s comeback in Abu Dhabi, but not as much as Hamilton would have enjoyed Ferrari’s progression throughout 2024.
Aside from a botched update that arrived at the Spanish Grand Prix, Ferrari made serious progress throughout the year and were level with Constructors’ Championship winners McLaren by the end of the season.
If they can maintain that level in 2025, then Hamilton and Leclerc may just be vying for the championship this year.
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