Ex-Ferrari boss says Hamilton is ‘too old’ – Much is being made of the ‘annus horribilis’ being experienced by Lewis Hamilton in his first season as a Ferrari driver. In Saturday qualifying he is 8-1 down to his team mate Charles Leclerc and despite a shock win in the China Sprint race, he has finished ahead of his team mate on Sunday’s just twice in nine rounds.
With each passing race weekend, Hamilton’s demeanour deteriorates and such was the low following his sixth place in the recent Spanish Grand Prix, he found it necessary to apologise to Sky presenter Rachel Brookes after giving what amounted to a monosyllabic interview.
Just the day before, Lewis had qualified in P5 for the Grand Prix and was set to start two places ahead of his team mate. The seven times world champion was buoyant in the media pen following the session, saying: “P5 in quali shows the progress we’ve made. The car felt good, so I’m going all in tomorrow, aiming for a podium finish.”
Hamilton euphoric then inconsolable
Yet it was all to go badly wrong for Hamilton on Sunday. The reason he qualified ahead of Charles Leclerc was because the Monegasque had elected not to run two sets of new tyres in the final qualifying session to save and extra set for the race. This proved to be crucial as once again the SF-25 punished its tyres harder than its rivals and it was Leclerc who made the last step of the podium whilst Hamilton trailed home in a distant sixth place.
Having lost out again to his team mate, Hamilton’s mood was in stark contrast to that of a day earlier when speaking after the race. “It was just not a great day,” he said. “Strategy was good, team did a great job. It was just not a great day.” Then unusually, Lewis appeared to be lost for words. “Just…” he failed to finish the sentence with a rueful shake of the head.
In an attempt at sympathy, Brookes said soothingly that it was “hard to see” him in this mood which sparked a rapid response from Hamilton who barked: “What do you want me to say? I just had a really bad day, and I’ve got nothing to say. It was a difficult day, there’s nothing else to add to it, it was terrible.”
Throughout his career there are those who suspect Lewis is somewhere along the bi-polar spectrum. His ups and downs are in stark contrast and often are juxtaposed closely, although even Hamilton felt he’d gone too far in his Sky interview, with Brookes later confirming he’d apologised to her to his behaviour.
Lewis’ performance at Ferrari as expected
Watching the various Hamilton interviews this season would lead anyone to believe he is having the worst time of his career. Yet Lewis is performing much better than during his final tenure with Mercedes where after nine rounds in 2024 he had just 55 points compared to his current 71. The tale in 2022 was similar with Lewis on just 77 points 9 weekends into the season and so his performance to date at Ferrari is not particularly out of the ordinary.
Hamilton had been beaten by George Russell in two of their three years racing together at Mercedes and a new and fresh start in Maranello appeared to be just the tonic he hoped would revive his fortunes. Yet since the epic duel with Max Verstappen in 2021, Lewis has been a shadow of his former self adding just two race victories to his previous tally of 103.
Now Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur’s predecessor has questioned the wisdom of Ferrari bringing in Hamilton so late in his career. Mattia Binotto was in charge of the iconic Italian racing team from 2019 to 2022 and now is heading up the Audi F1 project after working for Ferrari for 27 years.
“It’s clear that the performance on the track and the results are not good at the moment,” Binotto is reported saying by Automoto.it. “However, I know every single member of that team very well and I know that they are good, strong and capable. They will be able to improve the car and do well in the future. And I believe that Ferrari can get some satisfaction this year.”
Binotto says Hamilton was too old
Binotto believes Ferrari may have made an error when they recruited the seven times world champion, although the decision was made above Vasseur’s head by Group Chairman John Elkann, who is known to be a Hamilton fan.“Hamilton is of a certain age,” Binotto says. “Ferrari took him when he was already at the end of his career. The ideal would have been to have him a few years earlier.”
As already noted, Hamilton’s performance at Ferrari is broadly in line with that of his final three year’s with Mercedes and to a certain degree his performance since joining Ferrari was predictable. In particular when considering the effect of joining a new F1 team as Carlos Sainz knows all too well.
“You can have five or six complicated months of adaptation, but what matters is to get there, I think, because if you get there, in the end, with the level and talent you have, then you end up showing what you are worth,” Sainz told Mundo Deportivo. The Spaniard is no stranger in having to acclimatise to a new F1 team, given during his ten years in the sport he has driven for five different outfits.
Is it just acclimatisation?
Reflecting on his four years with the Scuderia, Sainz admitted it was in the middle of his first year with the team when he finally completed the transition. “I arrived in the middle of 2022 with pole positions at Silverstone, Spa and Austin. And I won a race, and in 2023, so in the end I got to the level I wanted,” he said. “The important thing is to get there.
“The risk is that you never end up adapting to that team or car, and so far I’m lucky to say that I’ve always ended up adapting to every team,” concluded the Spaniard.
Next up is one of Hamilton’s favourite circuits in Montreal. It was there he claimed his first pole position and win with McLaren during his rookie season in 2007. Hamilton has won on the Isle de Notre Dame a total of seven times and his sixth and last pole position was in 2019.
The circuit rewards a good qualifying position, given the old school nature of the track where overtaking opportunities are limited. Hamilton has never been beaten by a team mate at the Canadian Grand Prix, and come Sunday afternoon, this metric in itself will be an indicator as to whether he is adapting to life with Ferrari, or whether the long slow decline in his once dominant powers is set to continue.
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