Last Updated on December 18 2025, 12:34 pm
Lewis Hamilton in his nineteenth season in Formula One has endured his annus horribilis following a dream move to Ferrari. The fanfare which awaited him on his first day in Maranello now feels like some medieval jesters prank.
The police in the northern Italian town declared a sate of emergency given the expectations of a huge crowd turnout and Lewis was treated to a tour of the Scuderia’s facilities by none other than the Ferrari group president himself.
Come pre-season testing in Bahrain, hopes were high that Ferrari would continue their strong showing from the end of 2024. And whilst the irony of Carlos Sainz having been forced to move to Williams topping the time sheets was lost on no one, Lewis Hamilton was second quickest across the three days of testing with his team mate one place further back.
The huge shock of China for Ferrari
The first signs of weakness for Ferrari appeared at round one in Australia when both Ferrari’s qualified more than seven tenths off the pace in P7 and P8 and the wet race day exposed further weaknesses in the SF-25. Leclerc finished the race in P8 whilst Hamilton scraped into the top ten scoring a single point.
Yet the Melbourne circuit can be something of an outlier due to the track’s configuration and hopes remained high for a better outing next time out in China. Hamilton duly claimed pole position in the Sprint going on to win the shortened version of the Grand Prix, but come Sunday spirit’s in the Ferrari garage were rock bottom.
Qualifying for the Grand Prix saw Charles Leclerc a mere 3/10ths of a second behind pole sitter Oscar Piastri and both Hamilton and Leclerc crossed the finishing line in 5th and 6th position respectively. Yet what awaited the Ferrari drivers was to set the tone for the season as the FIA investigated both cars for running at an illegal height during the Grand Prix.
Leclerc and Hamilton were eventually disqualified for excessive wear of the skid block underneath the floor which revealed a fundamental weakness of the SF-25 the team would never resolve during the season. The revised suspension system Ferrari had adopted for the year was badly designed and in the era of the cost cap, not a parable there team would be able to fully resolve.
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Ferrari quit 2025 in season development
A hand full of races later the decision was take in Maranello by the team’s technical director that they would abandon all aero development of the SF-25 for the rest of the season. The team would continue to tweak certain mechanical systems given there would be some carry over into the new F1 regulation era of 2026.
Lewis Hamilton was unhappy about the decision and following the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix late in April, he expressed his views on what he expected for the rest of the season. “Nothing positive to take from today,” Hamilton said, “apart from Charles on the podium, which is great for the team.
“It was horrible, not enjoyable at all. I was just sliding around. It’s pretty bad. At the moment there is no fix so this is how it’s going to be for the rest or the year. It’s going to be painful,” Hamilton revealed.
And that moment of prophetic vision was how the year panned out for Hamilton. Whilst his team mate battled for seven podiums across the 24 rounds, Lewis became the first Ferrari driver in history to complete a season without a single visit to the Sunday presentation – a record set some 40 years ago.
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Simply put, Hamilton experienced his worst season of his nineteen completed in Formula One. Whilst the SF-25 was not competitive with Ferrari finishing in P4 in the constructors’ title race, Hamilton compared to Leclerc was light years away.
The head to head in qualifying was humiliating as Leclerc dominated his team mate 19-5. In the grand prix Hamilton’s metrics were even worse given he finished ahead of his Monegasque team mate on just four occasions.
Of course the SF-25 was a difficult beast to drive, but the gulf between the Ferrari drivers led to raised eyebrows in the paddock. On a number of occasions speculation rose to fever point that Hamilton was ready to quit F1 for good, in particular following his comments made after failing to make it out of Q1 in Hungary. A downbeat Lewis faced the cameras and described himself as “useless,” adding that Ferrari “probably need to change the driver.”
Week in and out the points gap between Hamilton and Leclerc just steadily grew with the end of season tally seeing Lewis a whopping 86 points behind his team mate and having contributed less than 40% of the Ferrari team points for the year.
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Wolff concerned over Hamilton’s “shelf life”
There is a widely held view that Hamilton is past his sell by date and comments from his old team boss Toto Wolff didn’t help to dissuade this view point. When pressed on why he had offered Hamilton just a one year deal for his final contract with Mercedes, the Austrian noted: “We’re in a sport where cognitive sharpness is extremely important, and I believe everyone has a shelf life.”
The writing was on the wall during Lewis’ final three seasons at Mercedes. He failed to beat his new junior team mate in their first season together in 2022. Across the three years they were team mates, George Russell got the better of Lewis in two of the seasons – as did Jenson Button before Hamilton moved to Mercedes.
Having declared he was no longer on mission “sort out Ferrari” during the winter break, Hamilton declared he was going to”off-grid” and was set to “unplug.” After testing in Abu Dhabi he was asked n a media session what his response was to people who believed he should now retire, Lewis replied: “I wouldn’t say anything to them. None of them has done what I’ve done, so they don’t know anything more than I do.”
Whilst the chances of seeing a resurgent Lewis ham Hilton remain statistically small, there is hope amongst the Hamfosi that the end of the F1 ground effect cars will solve Hamilton’s recent issues. However, there’s an extended pre-season testing schedule for 2026, by the end of which we will know whether Ferrari are in with a shout – or destined for another year of disappointment along with the inevitable speculation over Hamilton’s future.
The McLaren decision that derailed Oscar Piastri’s title fight
Consequences for McLaren’s refusal to drop ‘papaya rules’ – McLaren were true to their word in not backing one or other of their drivers for the 2025 Formula One drivers’ championship and will retain their now infamous ‘papaya rules’ for 2026.
Speaking at the FIA’s end of season prize gala, team CEO Zak Brown spoke of his pride in the team’s drivers and how they kept it fair to the final chequered flag of the year. In terms of the rules which allow their drivers to race freely – if that’s not an oxymoron – Brown was explicit stating that retaining the papaya code book is “exactly what we plan to do.” in F1 2026.
Yet the rules were not without controversy amongst fans and F1 observers alike. The basic premise is Piastri and Norris are free to race, but must not crash into each other and that the goals of the team come first…. READ MORE
A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13 and a career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media. Having trained in investigative journalism and contributed to several European sports outlets, Hunt brings rigour and polish to every article. His role is to sharpen analysis, check facts and ensure TJ13’s daily output meets the highest editorial standards.
Here’s the irony. Your asking for the man who finished the title in 6th place overall, and 14 places higher than the remaining drivers, at is what you’d definitely call his worst season, to retire.