Lewis Hamilton now has the worst ever record for a new driver joining the Ferrari team in 75 years of history. His much vaunted arrival in Maranello has gone incredibly sour as the former Mercedes six times world champion is running out of road.
The British driver’s racing statistics are plummeting as the world’s most winning F1 driver is suffering an end of career crisis. With just two Grand Prix wins in the last four seasons – one of those gifted to him by his team mate’s disqualification has seen Hamilton’s all time win to race start ratio collapse.
In his last 88 starts Lewis has just the two wins and so his career stats have collapsed from a nigh on a record 35% win rate to just 27.93% behind both Michael Schumacher (29.55%) and his arch rival Max Verstappen (29.69%) For the record Jim Clarke remains top of this list with a win ratio of 34.25%, although his 73 Grand Prix career was cut short by a tragic early death.
Worst record as a Ferrari driver
Hamilton now holds the worst ever record for a new Ferrari driver in terms of races before he claims his first podium for the Scuderia. The previous record of eighteen was held by ‘also ran; driver Diddier Pireoni now Hamilton is the latest Ferrari driver to sit in the shadows.
Meanwhile, without the advantage he had in the SF-25, Charles Leclerc has been making th best of a bad job in 2025. He has seven podiums after his triumph in Mexico and leads his champion team mate by 210-146. The Monegasque driver is 15-5 ahead in Grand Prix qualifying and has finished a whopping 17 times ahead of his most decorated team mate.
Yet Hamilton in his previous three years since losing out on a record eight F1 drivers’ championship has been a shadow of his former self, with George Russell beating him year in and out. Russel had one more win (although Lewis was gifted one) than Hamilton in their three years together at Mercedes, but in their final season together the statistics were crushing for Lewis.
The culture shock of Maranello
In 2024 he also beat Hamilton 14-9 in terms of race finishing positions and the count was a remarkable 19-5 in Grand Prix qualification positions. Now Hamilton is saying he “doesn’t blame” F1 fans for failing to understand the travails he has suffered since joining Ferrari. In what was deemed the biggest F brand merger in history, Lewis arrival suited and booted in Maranello day 1 seems a very long time ago. Hamilton claimed he would attempt to do a Michael Schumacher who turned around the fortunes of the ailing Italian racing team from their previous worst drought of success in motorsport.
Yet the reality of joining Ferrari has been an absolute nightmare for the former champion, he speaks little Italian and the culture shock moving from a British based racing team has been huge. The 40 year old driver sits sixth in the drivers championship, but given he is in a top four team with only Mercedes rookie Antonelli and the Red Bull car crash Yuki Tsunoda behind him in those rankings, it is hardly an accolade.
His ‘luck in’ victory in the Shanghai Sprint remains his only highlight of the twenty rounds he has competed in the all red racing overalls. Lewis has badgered the team about changes they need to make, sending in multiple “documents” for the engineers perusal. Yet Hamilton’s hopes remain high in that a sweeping regulation change is coming in the 2026 F1 car designs and a move away from the ground effect cars which has coincided with his demise.
Hamilton claims ‘people don’t understand’
Speaking to Ferrari Magazine, Hamilton reflects on the challenges of adapting to his new environment and how the complexity of F1 teams isn’t always visible from the outside. He claims not many people can truly understand the time it takes to settle into a new tea, “Only when you’re inside a team can you really, truly understand how it works and how F1 works. You can’t imagine how the machine really operates otherwise. I’ve been in F1 for so long, but when I came to this team it really was different again.
“So I don’t blame people for not knowing. All I can do is continue to focus on the things that I can control—how I prepare, how I work with the team, how I show up each day and stay positive,” he adds. Hamilton vastly underestimated the cultural difference between racing for Ferrari and any other F1 team and he points to the experience of his former mentor Niki Lauda who endured a similar experience.
“Niki was part of a world that couldn’t adapt to me being different,” Hamilton explained making reference to his mix raced working class background. “I’d heard negative things, though I’d always admired him as a three-time world champion,” Hamilton said. “He’s one of the true icons of our sport. Then he’s on the phone telling me why I should come to the team, and when we finally met, we had a really good conversation. He said, ‘You’re just like me, you’re a racer to the core.’
Hopes pinned on 2026 F1 regulation changes
“It wasn’t until we had that meeting that those barriers came down and the stereotyped view he may have had disappeared. After that, we’d travel to races together—he’d fly us places all the time.”
2026 is make or break for Lewis Hamilton’s continued F1 career and all hopes are pinned on Ferrari building a better powertrain than their rivals. As Hamilton continues his assimilation into the Ferrari team, he needs to start beating his team mate on a regular basis, otherwise all bets are off on the record eighth title and a return to Ferrari championship glory.
This coming season could be the final act for the once top of the pile F1 superstar, his career statistics are taking a huge hit as is his pride. Lewis needs to outperform his younger team mate and soon, although this may be his toughest task in his long F1 career.
Why mandatory 2 pit stops will fail in F1
The FIA are being pressed to consider a proposal which will mandate each driver makes two pit stops during a Formula One Grand Prix as the upcoming Sporting Advisory Committee and Formula 1 Commission meeting approaches.
The concept was trialed at this year’s Monaco Grand Prix although the nature of the circuit merely saw teams using their second placed driver on the road to drive as slowly as possible to create a pit window for their other pilot.
If agreed the regulation could be enforced as early as the upcoming 2026 seasons. The intention behind the rule is to create more strategic interest in the races particularly those which are prone to a rather processional Sunday afternoon…. 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.
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