Lewis Hamilton brought the streets of London to a standstill this week, as he was the guest of honour invited to officially open the latest “fanatics” store. Yet quietly elsewhere in the metropolis, the staff at his Vegan Burger chain were receiving the news the Uk part of this empire is closing with losses running into millions.
‘Neat Burgers’ was launched by the seven-time F1 champion and Hollywood royalty Leonardo DiCaprio in 2019, selling ‘100 per cent plant-based meals’. Yet the market in the UK doesn’t appear to have supported the business decision for a plant based only burger chain.
This loss is insignificant when compared th the rest of the wealth Hamilton has amassed over his eighteen year career in F1 and he has much larger worries on his mind, than the failure of ‘Neat Burgers.’
Hamilton shocking quali deficit
Hamilton’s Ferrari career began in January with a fanfare in Maranello followed by a personal guide of the facilities from the Ferrari global president John Elkann. The big hope that the seven times world champion would fire up the sleeping giant that is the Ferrari F1 team were raised at the second race of the season, where Lewis claimed pole and the win in the Sprint in Shanghai.
Yet the rest of the Hamilton’s year with Ferrari has been mostly disastrous. Having been hammered 19-5 in Grand Prix qualifying by George Russell in 2024, it appears Lewis has yet to find his one lap mojo. He is currently 4-1 down to Charles Leclerc in this respect with his only success a P5 start ahead of his team mate in P6 in Shanghai.
The worse news is that Hamilton is averaging a quali deficit to Leclerc of a whopping 0.302 seconds, which puts in him a similar boat to Jack Doohan, Lance Stroll and all of Verstappen’s team mates who regularly fail to get within a third of a second of their team mates.
Come the Grand Prix itself, Leclerc has finished ahead of Hamilton 5-0 and is now 16 points clear of his British team mate. Kimi Antonelli who replaced Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes now has 38 points to his predecessors 31 and there is little of joy in the statistics for Hamilton to cling to.
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The Italian media are starting to focus on Lewis Hamilton’s failings, rather than their usual obsession with Ferrari’s overall performance and despite a friendly publication suggesting the seven ties world champion may have a year to settle in to his new team, Fred Vasseur now says this is not the case.
Of course its difficult for a driver to switch teams and be on top of the car in a similar fashion to a team mate who has been with the team for several years. Carlos Sainz has demonstrated this at Williams, where he was a long way behind Alex Albon until the last two Grand Prix weekends.
In Bahrain and Saudi, the Spaniard qualified ahead of his team mate and following a DNF in Manama, he finally finished ahead of Albon come the race last time out in Jeddah. When asked about the year of transition for Hamilton, Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur was dismissive.
“It’s not a transitional time, but for sure he’s down because when you finish the race in sixth [sic] your team-mate is on the podium,” Vasseur told Motorsportweek. “Honestly, I take it as positive that Lewis is down because if he was happy with this, it wouldn’t be normal. He’s a racer, he’s a competitor, he wants to get the best from what he has and for sure he’s disappointed.”
No “transition year” allowed
Yet its hardly positive that Hamilton is nigh on a third of a second slower than his team mate ranking down there with the likes of Doohan and Stroll together with the Red Bull drivers who have been messed about by the team. Vasseur recognises how bad the situation has become as he notes the only was is to “move forward.”
The boss of the Scuderia almost protests too much with his dramatic revelation that he remains, “2000 per cent behind him. I will give him support and we will start from tomorrow morning to try to find solutions and reasons and to work on it early in the morning.”
The massage from Fred Vasseur is clear, theres no chance Ferrari will accept Hamilton taking a year to find his feet. Especially given the likes of rookie Oli Bearman has a quicker average qualifying time than team mate Nico Hulkenberg and its nip and tuck who finishes ahead in the races.
Hamilton has looked increasingly down over the last two race weekends and ex-F1 driver and Sky Germany pundit, Ralf Schumacher believes there are signs which point to an early retirement from the seven tines champions.
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“He just can’t handle the car”
Despite being on a multi-year contract with the Maranello-based team, Schumacher has insisted that he has seen signs in Hamilton that point to retirement. “He just can’t handle the car,” the brother of Michael said to Sky DE. “We talk a lot about Lando, but I think it’s almost worse with Lewis.
“He’s starting to slump, and that worries me. I know what it’s like. I used to drive myself, of course. And when you stand there at one point and you run out of aids and are slower and slower…,” muses Schumacher.
Once the King of the `formula One stats, Hamilton has won just two races since Qatar in 2021, thats just two wins in 73 Grand Prix for the once dominant F1 driver and even his glorious victory in Silverstone last year to break his duck of 53 races without a win is long forgotten.
“Think back, for example, to Silverstone [last year], where he cried with joy, because he said, ‘I can still do it’. He’s just losing it now. I know that from my own experience. If at some point that doesn’t stop, then it’s not fun anymore,” Schumacher suggests,
“Then at some point he wakes up in the morning and thinks, ‘Why am I doing this to myself? I don’t enjoy it anymore. I can’t do it anymore. I can’t handle it. I’m getting in the way of my team’. And I really see that happening.”
Hamilton is unlikely to quit Ferrari unless things get much much worse, but his struggles with the SF-25 appear to have no resolution soon and Miami with its glitz and glamour is likely to make Lewis suffer even further.
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The 2025 Formula One season is developing nicely into a battle between McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri together with Max Verstappen for the F1 drivers championship. The constructors’ title race looks to be a runaway certain for McLaren but Ferrari have yet to get up and running and Mercedes’ with rookie driver Kimi Antonelli and George Russell are making game for now of the team championship.
However, come 2026 and the F1 landscape may look very different. For the first time in F1 history the teams have to cope with fairly radical new engines along with revolutionary moveable bodywork as the next era of F1 regulations come into effect.
The last time there was such a large change in the F1 regulations, Mercedes delivered an uber dominant V6 hybrid turbo power unit going on to conquer all in their path, winning an historic eight consecutive constructors’ championships between 2014-2021…. READ MORE ON THIS STORY
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
