They were very optimistic at Ferrari with the arrival of the seven-time F1 world champion for 2025. The arrival of Lewis Hamilton, after Ferrari finished 2024 with the best car in the last races, suggested that this year would be the season that would end the drought for a team that had never gone so long without a win in its history. It seemed that they had it within their grasp, that they were on the right track, but the asphalt has put things in their place. The team was running smoothly and getting results with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, but everything has been blown up.
Hamilton and Ferrari, disappointment
The start of the championship didn’t look too bad, and although it was clear from the outset that the Englishman was going to struggle, he managed a sprint victory at the Chinese Grand Prix which, in hindsight, was just a flash of hope in the midst of the storm. Hamilton, who is sixth in the drivers’ standings with 71 points, is far from the level that could have been expected, and behind his teammate, something that was intuited from the beginning but that few dared to say. Apart from that sprint, Leclerc has clearly outperformed him in every aspect, something that did not happen in previous seasons with Carlos Sainz as his teammate.
In the last race, the Spanish Grand Prix, we saw a version of Lewis Hamilton we had never seen before, dejected, disappointed, and far from looking for excuses, which he has always had and managed to blame on the team, he began to feel responsible.
“It’s the worst race I’ve ever had in terms of balance. Anything positive? Zero.” “What do you want me to say? I had a bad day and I have nothing to say. There’s nothing to add, it was terrible, there’s no need to explain it. I just don’t know what to say. Will the team find the reasons? I’m sure not, it’s probably me.”
Vasseur, the team boss, came out to defend his driver after the race.
“If you want to create panic, go ahead. But that’s not the case. Lewis was ahead of Russell for 70% of the race, and I don’t think Russell thinks this race was a disaster. Then we had a problem with the car during the last stint before the safety car, and the result is not good. But he did 45 laps ahead of Russell.”
Comparison with Carlos Sainz
The behavior of Carlos Sainz contrasts with that of Hamilton. With the Madrid native, everything was cordial. There was anger within the team, which was logical, but when it came down to it, there was an atmosphere of camaraderie that has disappeared with the Englishman, who has been involved in several clashes with his engineer and has blamed the team for making a better car for Leclerc. And looking at the results, the Spaniard has demonstrated on the track what Hamilton, who is increasingly downcast, is failing to achieve.
Is the end of his career approaching?
The truth is that in Spain, thanks to Fernando Alonso, we have become accustomed to believing that a driver can perform at the highest level at an advanced age, but this has rarely been the case. Lewis Hamilton is 40 years old, an age at which most drivers lose the ability to drive an F1 car. After the last race, the defeatism we saw from the Englishman sparked an intense debate about his ability to remain at the forefront of F1. For now, he has one more year on his contract, and given his salary, it doesn’t seem like it’s in jeopardy. But if he can’t prove he can still perform at the top level, it could spell the end of his F1 career.
Hamilton is considered by many to be the greatest driver in history; there’s no arguing with his titles, but the years don’t pass the same for everyone, and perhaps the Englishman is closer to saying goodbye to F1.