Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari was billed as a fairy-tale partnership. The seven-time world champion donning the iconic scarlet red of Maranello was expected to reignite his career and Ferrari’s pursuit of glory. However, as the season has progressed, the situation has become more complicated.
The latest episode in Baku highlighted both promise and frustration, leaving pundits such as Ralf Schumacher questioning whether this relationship is heading towards success or separation. Indeed the German former F1 driver says that the likelihood of Hamilton and Ferrari parting ways is very real predicting the split would happen by the end of this year.
Ferrari had a mixed weekend in Baku
Hamilton began the weekend on a high note. In the first free practice session, he set the fastest time, suggesting that he and Ferrari were gaining momentum after the summer break. Hopes were raised, but qualifying soon deflated them. The Englishman was eliminated in Q2, a disappointing result given his pace in practice.
Starting from twelfth place on the grid, Hamilton was on the back foot even before the race began.
The qualifying strategy became a particular point of contention. Ferrari instructed Hamilton to use the soft tyre as early as lap two of the time trial, a decision that drew complaints from Hamilton himself. The end result was a car out of position, with a race defined by recovery rather than contention. By the end of the race, Hamilton had climbed to eighth place, salvaging some points, but falling well short of expectations.
Schumacher’s criticism: “Hamilton should take the blame himself,”
Speaking on Sky’s “Backstage Pit Lane” podcast, Ralf Schumacher offered a blunt assessment of Hamilton’s weekend. According to Schumacher, Hamilton cannot absolve himself by blaming Ferrari alone.
“He has to take the blame himself,” he said, pointing to the authority a driver of Hamilton’s stature should have within a team.
Drawing on his own experience, Schumacher explained that, even as a less successful driver, he was able to influence his engineers to meet his preferences. “If I wanted a tyre, I got it. There was no discussion,” he remarked. In his view, Hamilton should assert himself more forcefully in strategic decisions, particularly given his experience and track record.
According to Schumacher, no race engineer should dictate performance parameters to a driver of Hamilton’s calibre. Instead, the driver, who understands the car and the conditions in real time, should lead those decisions. For the former Grand Prix winner, Hamilton’s reluctance to insist is part of the problem, not just Ferrari’s flawed decision-making.
Team orders and internal friction
The tension didn’t end with qualifying. During the race itself, Ferrari’s strategy box delivered another flashpoint. After swapping positions with Charles Leclerc earlier in the race, Hamilton was asked to give up his place late on. The instruction was clear, but Hamilton ignored it.
This not only prevented Ferrari from achieving a smooth resolution to their race, but also exposed cracks in the team dynamic.
Schumacher warned that, if left unaddressed, such incidents could lead to deeper divisions within the team. His conclusion was stark: “Ferrari has to do the work internally, because otherwise they’ll tear themselves apart from within.”
For Schumacher, the issue boils down to communication, or the lack of it. The impression from Baku was not of a united front, but of a driver and team drifting apart in their views on strategy and cooperation. Without significant improvement in dialogue, he suggested, the partnership could collapse entirely.
The problem of trust
At the heart of Schumacher’s commentary lies the question of trust. If Hamilton begins to believe that he is not receiving proper advice, his confidence in Ferrari will erode. This is a particularly dangerous scenario for a driver who has built his career on mutual trust with his engineers and strategists. Meanwhile, Ferrari may find it easier to rely on Leclerc, whose relationship with the team appears less problematic.
Nevertheless, there are signs of encouragement. Hamilton’s pace has improved, and he still has the ability to climb through the field. This makes the strained relationship all the more frustrating for Schumacher. The potential is there, but the cohesion is not. His warning was sharp: “If there’s no trust, only mistrust, then it’s better to leave it alone. Then at the end of the year, you’ll have to say, ‘Listen, we’re going our separate ways.’”
A partnership under review
At this stage, however, both Hamilton and Ferrari appear determined to continue working together. Their occasional bursts of speed offer enough encouragement to justify patience, and both parties have too much invested in the partnership to abandon it mid-season. However, the pattern of miscommunication and second-guessing cannot continue indefinitely.
Ferrari’s relationship with Hamilton is starting to resemble an arranged marriage. Both sides need each other, Ferrari to restore its standing and Hamilton to reinvigorate his career, but neither seems entirely comfortable in the partnership. The team’s organisational chaos is testing Hamilton’s patience, and his independent streak is clashing with Ferrari’s preference for strict obedience.
It’s a familiar Ferrari story?
History is not on their side. Many great drivers have arrived in Maranello with high hopes, only to leave feeling disillusioned. Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Alain Prost each discovered that Ferrari’s mystique is often undermined by its internal politics and strategic misfires. Hamilton may now be walking the same path, from initial optimism to growing disillusionment.
The Baku episode with Leclerc only serves to reinforce this. Ferrari has a habit of complicating driver relationships, often to its own detriment. Asking Hamilton to yield late in the race, only for him to refuse, underscored the lack of unity within the team. For a team already under pressure to deliver results, such public displays of discord hardly inspire confidence.
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What next?
The rest of the season will reveal whether Hamilton and Ferrari can overcome these growing pains. Their pace is gradually improving, and victory is not out of the question. However, unless communication and trust improve, the partnership risks unravelling. For Ferrari, that would mean yet another failed experiment with a superstar driver. For Hamilton, it would tarnish what was supposed to be the crowning chapter of his career.
As Schumacher said, the solution lies in talking openly and honestly. Without that, mistrust will replace optimism and separation will become the only logical conclusion.
For now, the jury is still out. Will Ferrari and Hamilton find a way to build trust and harmony, or will this partnership be added to the long list of Ferrari relationships that promised much but delivered little? The season ahead will provide the answer, and, as always in Formula 1, it will do so in the most dramatic way possible.
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Why are we listening to anything Ralf Schumacher has to say? He has the worst takes on most drivers and is often incorrect.