Lewis Hamilton announced his shock move to Ferrari this year just a few months after signing his latest deal with Mercedes which was presented as a multi-year deal. In fact despite the several months of negotiations where Hamilton’s team had made it known he wanted a ten year Mercedes’ ambassador role, Lewis was clearly non-plussed at the Mercedes media event where his new deal was revealed to the F1 media.

“This won’t be my last F1 driver’s contract,” declared Hamilton almost defensively and in less than six months he was proven correct as Ferrari declared they had signed th seven times world champion to at least the end of the 2026 season. Lewis’ final year with the team was his worst since joining Formula One back in 2007 as he finished a lowly seventh in the drivers’ title race.

Hamilton was crushed by team mate George Russell in qualifying with a tally of 19-5 over the course of 2024 and he even hinted in Brazil, he might not complete the final three race weekends of the year. Lewis did claim two Grand Prix victories in 2024, although one was inherited from his team mate after the W15 of Russell was declared underweight in Belgium. This saw a 32 point swing in favour of Hamilton over Russell yet he still came up 22 points short of his team mate in the final reckoning in Abu Dhabi. 

 

 

 

 

Hamilton racing “at his very best”

Speaking on Sky F1 podcast, the 2016 F1 champion has shared hi concern that should Lewis fail to find his qualifying pace with the Scuderia, it may well become a “quite a painful adventure” for him.

Far from being critical of his own team mate, Nico Rosberg also observed that during the races Hamilton remains to be “at his very, very best.” His race from P10 in Las Vegas to hunt down team mate George Russell in the closing laps, looked like the Hamilton many of his fans will remember from old.

Rosberg also noted how critical Lewis was over his own qualifying pace and suggest his public admissions are a sign he’s “very worried” about what he will face next season.

Round eight of the year in Monaco saw Russell again out qualify his world champion team mate, bringing the score for the season to 7-1. Surprisingly, a downbeat Hamilton prophesied after the session, “I don’t anticipate being ahead of George in qualifying particularly, this year. We have got to keep pushing,” he told assembled media.

So early in the year this prediction was unusual for Hamilton to make, because he is known for his fighting spirit. Yet as Toto Wolff revealed in Qatar, it is the new breed of ground effect cars which have cause Hamilton many of the problems he has experienced.

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Lewis does not like ground effect cars handling

“It’s just the generation of cars. He doesn’t particularly like the car as it is now. It’s just something he doesn’t like. He’s a late braker. He likes to take a lot of speed into the entry of the corner and the car doesn’t take it,” revealed the Mercedes team boss.

On the other side of the garage, young gun George Russell appears to be thriving and despite not having the best of the cars has now won three Grand Prix in his time with Mercedes. Russell was rampant in Las Vegas claiming poll and the win although the drive of the day went to his team mate Hamilton for carving his way through the field to take second place.

“He is at a place where he’s saying to himself, ‘I’m not fast anymore’, and that’s really singled out to qualifying,” Rosberg explained on the Sky F1 podcast.

“The problem with our sport is that if you don’t qualify high up, you really struggle, even though he still seems to be at his very, very best in race pace – we’ve seen over and over again his racing pace is just still insanely strong.

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Qualifying is Hamilton’s achilles heel

“But when you qualify poorly all the time almost, and he says himself he’s just not quick enough in qualifying, then that’s something that was weighing on the shoulders so much during the end of the year, because you know you when you get beaten from your team-mate who’s younger, and let’s remember, the team-mate is not a World Champion, the team-mate is just a four-time race winner [three, sic.].”

Rosberg explains how difficult it is when you get beaten “all the time” by your team mate particularly for Hamilton who he labelled as “statistically the GOAT.”

“Now, he has two years at Ferrari, and he will 100% be very, very worried. ‘What if this form of mine continues, like, was it just the car at Mercedes, or was it something else? And what if this form of mine continues to Ferrari?’ If it does, it would really be quite a painful adventure, I would say, because that’s not what Ferrari hired him for.

“Ferrari hired him to be on a level with Leclerc and fight for World Championships. So I think he will be very worried about that, and we can only hope that he finds back to his good old self with a reset at Ferrari and is, once again, the brilliant driver we know.”

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Leclerc on of the best over one lap

Leclerc beat Sainz 14-9 but the Spaniard was often quick during qualifying sessions and so for Hamilton against Leclerc next season may be his firmest test of resolve ever.

Hamilton was recruited above the head of team boss Fred Vasseur by the Ferrari group chairman, John Elkann. Whilst Lewis won’t be discriminated against for this, should he fall significantly behind LecLerc then questions will be asked by the Ferrari top brass.

Vasseur suggested at the end of season finale that Sainz may once again be on Ferrari’s radar, given the impressive four years he spent with the team. 

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Ferrari leave door open for Sainz

”In the future, the door is certainly open for him,” Vasseur told DAZN adding, “we’ve already talked about this a couple of times. This is a very small world, there are only 10 teams and only 6 or 7 top drivers and you never know what can happen in the future.

“But most of us, both Carlos on his side and me on mine, have to focus on our project, and I don’t know what will happen in 2027, 2028 or 2029,” the frenchman concluded.

Former Haas F1 team boss, Günther Steiner believes the challenge of Charles Leclerc as his new team mate will be enough motivation for Hamilton to recover his mojo. “The car has to be good, and Charles Leclerc won’t be easy to beat in the same car, so it’s a challenge for him, but I think he needs it,” he said speaking to Italian media at theAbu Dhabi Grand Prix.

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Red Bull conditions in Lawson contract

Despite remaining two constructors’ championships behind arch rivals Mercedes, Red Bull Racing appeared to throw away their chance of another Formula One team title this season as they dallied over what to do with Sergio Perez. The Mexican was widely expected in the paddock to be dismissed during the summer break given the reported clause in his contract which required him to remain within 100 points of his team mate.

Red Bull at the time led rivals McLaren by 42 points and Verstappen’s lead in the drivers’ title race stood at 78 points. With a significantly altered autumn schedule the teams returned from their August sojourn with just four Grand Prix weekends ahead of them before a newly instigated four week autumn break to allow the racing personnel some respite before the season ending double triple headers in the run to the final in Abu Dhabi

Perez was retained according to Christian Horner because,  “We know that there’s tracks that he’s won at coming up. We’ve got Azerbaijan where he’s won both a Sprint and grand prix on the same weekend. He’s won a fantastic race in Singapore against Charles Leclerc in mixed conditions,” the Red Bull boss told Sky following FP2 in Zandvoort… READ MORE