When Lewis Hamilton falls asleep at night, the dream fairy taunts him with visions of him leading Formula One’s iconic team in a return to glory. The Italian squad are the oldest of all the teams and the only one to have raced since the first round of the inaugural FIA F1 world championship in 1950.
Yet Ferrari’s history is a mixed one. Yes they are the most successfully F1 team with their 16 constructors titles and 15 drivers’ championships, of which five came from probably their most famous pilot Michael Schumacher.
Prior to Schumacher’s title win in the year 2000, the previous driver for the Scuderia to have claimed the championship was Jodi Scheckter back in 1979. 21 years of a long wait for Ferrari even though in the constructors’ title race the gap was just 16 years. The patience of the tifosi was wearing thin, then came Michael Schumacher.
Can Hamilton be the next Schumacher?
Ferrari are now suffering their second longest run without claiming glory at the end of a season, its been 19 years since Kimi Raikkonen stole the title from under the noses of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton by just one point. The team won the constructors’ championship the following year, which coincided with Hamilton]s maiden title.
Of course when Schumacher joined Ferrari in 1996, there was a huge rebuild programme being embarked upon. And but for a broken leg at the British Grand Prix in ’99, the German ace ,may well have claimed eight F1 drivers’ championships. Now the Maranello based team are facing their second longest period in the F1 wilderness and given the start they’ve had to this season, the drought looks as though it will extend to yet another year.
Hamilton was an emotional signing by Ferrari group president John Elkann, with Fred Vasseur saying a few weeks earlier he was happy with the Sainz/Leclerc lineup to continue. There was little evidence since the arrival of the ground effect cars in 2022, that Lewis could drive the new machines which derive around 50% of their downforce from underneath the car. Merely switching teams to find the proverbial “reset” was never going to be the solution for the British driver. Yet given the writing was on the wall over his Mercedes future Hamilton decided it was better to jump than wait to be pushed.
Ferrari have been way off the pace and find themselves after a quarter of the 2025 season a whopping 110 points behind leaders McLaren. In a strange kind of way this suits Lewis Hamilton, given the pressure he would be under should he find himself a genuine title contender in his first year for the Scuderia.
Criticising Ferrari a big risk
Yet its his performance when compared to his team mate which is stark. Hamilton has failed to out qualify his team mate once. Further he has not finished ahead of Leclerc in any of the 6 Grand Prix to date, this is not the record of a seven times world champion.
Things started coming together for Lewis in Miami, he was a fraction slower than Leclerc in Grand Prix qualifying and ahead of him for the start of the Sprint. Yet as the team’s strategy team dithered over team orders which were plain for all to see, Hamilton quipped: “why don’t you take a tea break while your at it.”
Old skool Ferrari fans would have taken a sharp intake of breath at Hamiltons words, yet his sunny demeanour after the race together with the rallying call “we can all do better” appeared to strike the right note for the neutral who could see fore themselves the chaos within the strategy team.
However, Hamilton was brutal whilst on team radio and the comments about taking a “tea break” will not have gone down well with the team. Martin Brundle observed team unity is not there just now as Lewis berated “you guys” over team radio. This signifies a lack of togetherness, which may well be the case, yet previously for twelve long years the royal “we” was deployed for both himself and the Mercedes team.
Brundle notices divisions between Lewis and the team
“I think it’s quite telling, the sarcasm of them, how upset Lewis is. He’d have been really frustrated in that race. 23 laps behind Ocon in the customer Ferrari with 300 people in the factory? That’s not where Lewis expected to be this year,” said Brundle in the mid-week Sky F1 broadcast.
“I’d imagine his mood wasn’t too good. It didn’t look like they should have just swept him straight past Charles. One started on hards and went to medium, Charles started on medium and went to hard – they were going to meet in the middle somewhere.
“It seemed like a no-brainer, but in the end they had to let Charles back through, and that’s when Lewis came up with his second comment of ‘do you want me to let the Williams through as well?’, which was painful listening.
“They closed ranks at the end to calm that all down, but some of those things Lewis came out with, you can’t unsay. Two words that caught my attention in Lewis’ transmission – you guys. He’s a massive team player. It was quite a punchy thing to say, as in ‘it’s not us, it’s you’.”
Ted Kravitz believes Hamilton has ventured into territory where Michael Schumacher never dared to gon in terms of drivers’ criticising the Ferrari team. “There’s a long history,” Kravitz said. “I think back to Alain Prost. I don’t remember Michael Schumacher ever criticising Ferrari.
“But Sebastian Vettel certainly did, Kimi Raikkonen did – it’s just that people didn’t think he was serious. There’s a long history of Ferrari drivers criticising Ferrari and it not working out well for them.”
Alain Prost was sacked with a race remaining on his contract in 1991, for daring to describe his hapless Ferrari as a “truck.” This was probably one of the most brutal treatments handed out by the Scuderia to a driver, although Fernando Alonso was persona non-gratis by the time he left the Red F1 team.
Schumacher SLAMS “childish” Hamilton
Sainz move toward FIA leadership role
Could Carlos Sainz Sr be the next FIA president? Motorsport’s governing body faces possible leadership shake-up – As the international motorsport community turns its attention to the 2025 FIA presidential election, signs of a seismic shift in leadership are beginning to emerge. Incumbent President Mohammed bin Sulayem, who took over the helm of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) in December 2021, is facing increasing scrutiny and growing opposition.
Now, for the first time in years, the head of motorsport’s most powerful governing body could face a serious challenge – and the most intriguing name floating around as a potential successor is none other than Carlos Sainz Sr.
The two-time World Rally Champion and father of current Ferrari F1 driver Carlos Sainz Jr, Sainz Sr is reportedly being courted by various interests within the motorsport world to consider challenging bin Sulayem. While Sainz Sr has yet to officially declare his candidacy, credible sources close to his family suggest that discussions are underway and a decision may not be far off.
If he does decide to run, it would mark an extraordinary new chapter in a distinguished motorsport career and could herald a significant cultural and operational change at the FIA…. READ MORE
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.
