Having moved to Ferrari this season in a fanfare of Italian PR, Lewis Hamilton has described this year as a “nightmare” and his “worst season ever in Formula One.”
The seven times champion’s year peaked at round two in China, where he qualified on pole for the Sprint before going on to win the shortened for race on Saturday morning. Yet the cruel racing gods intervened, and both Hamilton and his team mate were disqualified from the Grand Prix on Sunday for excessive wear of the SF-25 skid blocks.
Ferrari introduced a new suspension upgrade in Belgium to deal with the ride height issues which plagued their car, yet since the new component their average points scored each weekend has fallen from 19 to 14.
Vasseur reveals Ferrari quit 2025 after 5 GP
The group president John Elkann praised the engineers and mechanics for the improvements he claimed they had made to the car, despite the actual deterioration in their statistics, going on to tell his drivers to “talk less and focus more on the driving.”
Clearly Maranello is a divided place and unlike Carlos Sainz at Williams who has overcome his switch of team, Hamilton cuts a lonesome figure in the paddock and is still sending in “documents” for the team to consider in how to improve their operation.
In Qatar, Fred Vasseur was asked why Ferrari’s form had collapsed since the final six races of 2024, when their SF-24 was by far the quickest car. He dodged the fact that Ferrari had in a moment of madness decided to build a completely new car and run a push rod suspension, a design they have no experience with.
“Quite early in the season, McLaren was so dominating in the first four or five events that we realised it would be very difficult for 2025,” said Vasseur. “It meant that we decided very early in the season, I think it was the end of April, to switch (the development focus) to ’26. It was a tough call.”
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“Perhaps I also underestimated a little bit the call on the psychological side, because when you still have 20 races to go, or 18 races to go, and you know that you won’t bring any aero development, it’s quite tough to manage psychologically.”
“But overall, we continue to push. We brought some mechanical upgrades, we are trying to do a better job on operation, and this is the DNA of our sport. But we have to accept this. I’m still confident with the call we made, and it’s okay – now let’s fight for P2 with these conditions.”
Ferrari’s miserable outing in Qatar, meant they are no longer fighting for second in the constructors’ but have been confirmed as the fourth place team for 2025. Further, Fred Vasseur has been heavily criticised in the Italian media for the excuses he has made for Ferrari’s year of impotence.
Ex-Ferrari F1 racer Jean Alesi has come out and criticised the Ferrari team boss for his string of “weak excuses.” Red Bull Racing have continued to bring upgrades until recently and yet believe they have not compromised their efforts for 2026.
Qatar: “The worst GP in living memory” for Ferrari
The former Ferrari driver has described the attitude of the team as “embarrassing” and called the decision to cancel the in season development of the car in April as questionable. Alesi also suggested this was merely a cover up for more disturbing issues back in Maranello.
The former Ferrari driver praised Max Verstappen, a driver who “never gives up, pushes the team forward and is in perfect symbiosis with the people around him,” before turning to the shambles that has been the Scuderia,
“I thought that the criticism expressed by the president toward the drivers would have pushed the team to react and to give Leclerc and Hamilton a more competitive car. Instead, in Qatar we witnessed the worst Grand Prix in living memory. A complete disappointment for us fans, both thinking about how Ferrari appeared on track at the start of the season and how it behaved afterwards.”
Alesi believes quitting the championship after just five Grand Prix was a reprehensible choice and that the ardent tifosi fans deserved better. In terms of Hamilton’s lack of contribution to the team’s points scored, he backs the seven times world champion and again derides his old team.
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“Lewis may have some responsibility, but he has won seven World Championships, while Ferrari had not won anything. And that is not all: I am seriously worried about the future. Saying that all development was interrupted to prepare next year’s car seems like a very weak excuse.
“All the teams carried out double work in 2025, improving on track while also pushing ahead with their 2026 car. Ferrari’s attitude makes me think of an embarrassing attempt to protect this failure.”
Yet Hamilton has been thrashed by Charles Leclerc in 2025. His 78 point deficit to his team mate is embarrassing and the head to head in qualifying reveals Leclerc has triumphed on 18 on the twenty three Saturday afternoons and finished ahead of Hamilton 19 times. on Sunday.
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Leclerc: ‘A season to forget’
When asked in Abu Dhabi about Ferrari’s season, Charles Leclerc gave his bet political response. “I’m hoping to give us a little bit more happiness to go into the holidays because it would be quite depressing to go into the holidays after two weekends like Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
“That would be very bad, but I just want to get [Abu Dhabi] out of the way, but in a positive way. I just want to do absolutely everything in order to extract whatever is left in our car, and hopefully jump on the podium one last time this year.”
While Ferrari are winless in 2025, Leclerc has managed to drag the SF-25 onto the podium on seven occasions. Meanwhile Lewis Hamilton is set to endure his first season in eighteen years of F1 without making the top three on Sunday. Hamilton will surrender his seat to Charles Leclerc’s brother in FP1.
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Hamilton surprised he’s still standing
Speaking at a media event in an Abu Dhabi restaurant, Hamilton reflected on his inaugural season at Ferrari. “I think also just learning that when you’re going through something, it will pass. In the moment it doesn’t feel like it’s going to ever pass because it feels like eternity.
“Like this year for me, I’ve even surprised myself that I’m still standing, given what I’ve gone through. The people around me [say], ‘of course you’re still standing’ because they see me in a certain way.”
Lewis has control over his future at Ferrari until the end of 2027, but should the change of car design regulations fail to change his current form, he cold retire at the end of his nineteenth season in 2026.
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The eve of the decider in the desert is upon us and Formula One will see its first three way fight for the drivers’ title since 2010 when Sebastian Vettel claimed the first of his four championships.
Statistically that year there were four drivers who cold mathematically win the title, but with Lewis Hamilton 23 points behind his nemesis Fernando Alonso and both Mark Webber and Vettel ahead of him, it required some kind of epic disaster for the three for Hamilton to have a chance.
The last time there were exactly three drivers in the hunt, was famously in 2007, where the McLaren duo headed Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari, but it was the Ice Man who prevailed, leaving Alonso and Hamilton equal on points and a single point behind the Ferrari driver…. READ MORE
A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13, where Andrew oversees editorial standards and contributes to the site’s Formula 1 coverage. A career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media, Andrew trained in investigative journalism and has written for a range of European sports outlets.
At TJ13, Andrew plays a central role in shaping the site’s output, working across breaking news, analysis, and long-form features. Andrew’s responsibilities include fact-checking, refining editorial structure, and ensuring consistency in reporting across a fast-moving news cycle.
Andrew’s work focuses particularly on the intersection of Formula 1 politics, regulation, and team strategy. Andrew closely follows developments involving the FIA, team leadership, and driver market dynamics, helping to provide context behind the sport’s biggest stories.
With experience covering multiple seasons of Formula 1’s modern hybrid era, Andrew has developed a detailed understanding of how regulatory changes and competitive shifts influence the grid. Andrew’s editorial approach prioritises clarity and context, aiming to help readers navigate complex developments within the sport.
In addition to editorial duties, Andrew is particularly interested in how media narratives shape fan perception of Formula 1, and how reporting can balance speed with accuracy in an increasingly digital news environment.
