Bernie Ecclestone has once again placed himself at the centre of the Formula 1 conversation by criticising both Lewis Hamilton and Scuderia Ferrari HP. In an interview with Sport Bild, the former F1 supremo questioned the wisdom of Hamilton’s late-career move to Maranello, suggesting that the seven-time champion should consider retiring.
Ecclestone, now aged 94, has consistently maintained that Hamilton’s “Project Ferrari” has failed to achieve the grand success anticipated by both the driver and the team. He reiterated his long-standing belief that Hamilton risks damaging his legacy by dragging out his career without achieving any more successes.
Bernie’s warning
“The most embarrassing thing for Lewis and Ferrari, in my opinion, is that they thought he could do whatever it took to win the title,” Ecclestone explained. “One has to be disappointed that what was expected wasn’t delivered.”
The Briton went further, advising Hamilton to “call it quits”, and added that “there is a danger people will forget him and his achievements if he continues for another year or so and hasn’t improved by then”.
Ecclestone believes that Hamilton’s fading sharpness is partly due to age and partly due to distraction. ‘He’s getting tired, and Formula One isn’t the only thing in his life anymore. I think he’s lost his focus. Twenty years is a long time, and there are a lot of young drivers in F1 now,” he noted.
Rosberg sees green shoots
Not everyone shares Bernie’s pessimism. Nico Rosberg, the 2016 world champion and Hamilton’s long-time rival, struck a more optimistic tone after Hamilton’s performance at Monza. Speaking on Sky Sports F1, Rosberg remarked, “It was nice to see Lewis have a really solid weekend, feeling comfortable in the car, being quick at times, and showing glimpses of his brilliance.”
The German pointed out that even this moderate improvement was being celebrated because of how low the bar had sunk in recent months. ‘It was an important weekend for him,’ Rosberg said, ‘but at the same time, it’s a testament to how bad it was before. Just because he was close to Charles, we all say, ‘This is a great weekend,’ given all the mistakes and problems with the pace before.”
However, Rosberg shifted much of the blame away from Hamilton and onto the team. ‘Ferrari is under enormous pressure because they are always heavily judged on their home race. It was a poor home race with no pace, no chance of winning and no chance of a podium finish.’
Hamilton and Ferrari: a marriage of pressure
This is the crossroads at which Ferrari and Hamilton now find themselves. The team carries the burden of history, national expectation, and two decades without a championship. Hamilton, meanwhile, carries the weight of his record, his age and the expectation that he can return Ferrari to its former glory. When these burdens converge, the weight becomes visible to all.
Ferrari’s struggles are nothing new. Since the golden era of Michael Schumacher, the Scuderia has oscillated between revival and relapse, between title challenges and barren seasons. Hamilton, meanwhile, had hoped that his personal brand and unparalleled experience could provide the missing spark. Ecclestone’s scepticism, whether shared or not, is not conjured out of thin air.
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Bernie being Bernie
Formula One would not be the same without Bernie Ecclestone stirring the pot. The nonagenarian has been criticising Hamilton on and off since the Briton first entered the sport. Sometimes it feels like a reflex: if Hamilton sneezes, Bernie will say he should retire before he catches a cold. One suspects that Ecclestone secretly misses the days when he was pulling the strings behind the scenes, and that chipping away from the sidelines is his way of staying relevant.
The jabs may sting Hamilton, but they are unlikely to dictate his decisions. If every driver retired when Bernie told them to, Formula One grids would consist entirely of rookies and underpaid test drivers. Nevertheless, there is an element of truth in the idea that champions who stay too long risk seeing their legacies erode before their eyes.
Rosberg the diplomat
Rosberg’s commentary is less about provocation and more about perspective. The German knows better than most how formidable Hamilton can be, having beaten him and been beaten by him in equal measure. When Rosberg highlights the positives, he is both encouraging Hamilton and reminding us of how high he once soared. He knows the scale of the climb back up.
Rosberg also does Ferrari no favours with his verdict. Despite the glamour of Monza and the sea of scarlet tifosi, a weekend without pace or a chance of reaching the podium is humiliating for the Scuderia. If Hamilton is frustrated by underperformance, he is hardly alone in Maranello.
Is this a fading spotlight or one last act?
So where does this leave the Hamilton–Ferrari story? For the optimists, Monza offered a glimmer of hope that the project can work and showed that Hamilton still has moments of speed and instinct that could be harnessed with the right machinery. For the pessimists, however, it was yet another weekend in which avoiding disaster was hailed as a success — hardly the standard upon which Hamilton built his name.
If history tells us anything, it is that great drivers rarely fade away quietly. They cling to the belief that one more race, one more season or one more upgrade will turn their luck around. Whether Hamilton’s Ferrari adventure will end in vindication or the slow grind of diminishing returns remains to be seen.
MORE F1 NEWS – Hamilton on Gaza genocide, hypocritical F1 clings to Qatar GP
Lewis Hamilton has broken his silence on the conflict in Gaza, speaking out publicly following a new United Nations Commission of Inquiry report which concluded that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people – The UN report, published in September 2025, states that there are reasonable grounds to believe that four of the five acts of genocide defined under international law have been committed since Israel’s military offensive against Hamas began in October 2023.
The war was triggered by Hamas’ attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which left around 1,200 people dead and saw 251 people taken hostage. Israel responded with a sustained and devastating campaign in Gaza. According to figures provided by the Hamas-run health ministry, which are regarded as credible by the UN, this campaign has killed at least 64,964 Palestinians to date.
The report outlines that these acts include killing members of a group, inflicting serious bodily and mental harm, deliberately creating conditions that destroy lives, and preventing births. Israel has rejected the findings, dismissing the report as distorted and false…READ MORE ON THIS STORY
Thiago Treze is a Brazilian motorsport writer at TJ13 with a background in sports journalism and broadcast media, alongside an academic foundation in engineering with a focus on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). This combination of technical knowledge and editorial experience allows Thiago to approach Formula 1 from both a performance and narrative perspective.
At TJ13, Treze covers driver performance, career developments, and key storylines across the Formula 1 grid, while also analysing the technical factors that influence competitiveness. This includes aerodynamic development trends, simulation-driven design approaches, and the engineering decisions that shape race weekend outcomes.
His reporting bridges the gap between human performance and machine development, helping readers understand how driver execution and technical innovation interact in modern Formula 1. Coverage often connects on-track events with the underlying engineering philosophies that define each team’s approach.
With a global perspective shaped by both journalism and technical study, Thiago also focuses on Formula 1’s international reach and the different ways the sport is experienced across regions.
Treze has a particular interest in how Computational Fluid Dynamics and aerodynamic modelling contribute to car performance, offering accessible explanations of complex technical concepts within Formula 1.
