Last Updated on December 17 2025, 9:41 pm

Lewis Hamilton has never recovered from the 2021 Formula One title decided in Abu Dhabi. Having racked up six driver titles in seven years following his shock move to Mercedes, the British driver has suffered his worst four seasons in Formula One.

In 2022 he failed to win a Grand Prix for the first time in his career during the calendar year although he did claim nine podiums in a badly designed Mercedes car. In 2023 the tally dropped to just six visits to the Sunday afternoon presentation although he scored in every round bar two, with a retirement in Qatar and a disqualification in Austin, Texas.

Hamilton returned to winning ways last year with two Grand Prix wins at Silverstone and Spa-Francochamps although the latter was by default when his team mate George Russell was disqualified for his car being under weight.

 

 

 

Hamilton knew his career at Mercedes was finished

Russell had beaten the seven times champion in two of their three seasons together and the writing was on the wall for his Mercedes future. Having wrangled with Toto Wolff for most of the season over a new contract with Mercedes, Hamilton was humiliated when his call for a ten year Mercedes ambassador role was denied and his much awaited new deal was in effect for just one season.

In a book released in November 2024 when Hamilton was readying himself for a move to Ferrari, Toto Wolff stated the his driver’s decision to leave the team was a blessing in disguise because “it avoids the moment where we need to tell the sport’s most iconic driver that we want to stop … We’re in a sport where cognitive sharpness is extremely important, and I believe everyone has a shelf life.”

It clearly had become obvious to Hamilton that Wolff considered the future of Mercedes to be in the hands of George Russell and their rising academy star driver Kimi Antonelli. So his move to Ferrari was one of self preservation to ensure he could extend his F1 career for as long as possible.

Hamilton grew up looking at Michael Schumacher as his hero and has spoken on more than one occasion of how the German was intrinsic to turning around the fortunes of Ferrari in the late 1990’s. In making his move to Maranello, Hamilton hoped to emulate the work of his childhood idol by making Ferrari great again.

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The ‘Hamilton files’

Yet things went from bad to worse in 2025, as Hamilton failed to make a single podium finish on Sunday for the Scuderia. This broke a forty year old record for a new driver joining Ferrari.

To make matters worse Hamilton was thrashed in qualifying by his team mate 19-5 and in the Grand Prix classification the tally was 20-4 to Charles Leclerc. The end of the season was disastrous for Lewis as he failed to make it out of Q1 in the final four qualifying sessions of the year.

Yet through it all, Hamilton mostly refused to cowed by the shocking results. He repeatedly spoke of documents he had prepared for the senior management of the Ferrari team. These included observations on how things were done at Mercedes together with “structural changes” Lewis felt the team would benefit from.

“I’ve got so many notes in terms of things we need to improve on,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 at the penultimate round of the season in Qatar. “Time will tell whether or not we act on those things and we keep hold of the things that are good and change the things that are not – and there’s plenty of those.”

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Lewis calls for change at Ferrari

A week later in Abu Dhabi when asked if changes would be made in Maranello, a defiant Hamilton replied “yes.” When pressed over could things continue as the way they are, Lewis was adamant:“Definitely not.”

Of course Michael Schumacher was part of the revolution at Ferrari instigated by French boss Jean Todt and British engineer Ross Brawn. The latter are very different characters to current Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur, who appears less about ruthless root and branch change, preferring a softer approach to handling his engineers.

Schumacher was a double world champion when he joined Ferrari in 1996, but it was five long years before he finally claimed championship glory for the iconic red team. Hamilton has a nailed on three year contract with Ferrari, so time is short if he’s to ring the changes he believes are required for the Scuderia tor return to the top of the F1 pile.

Other older world champions have joined Ferrari in the belief they could turn the Italian team’s fortunes around. Fernando Alonso was there for five long years (2010-14) without success and he was followed by quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel (2015-2020) who was also unable to clinch a championship for F1’s sleeping giant.

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Former Ferrari F1 boss describes Hamilton’s documents as “useless”

Both Alonso and Hamilton attempted reform amongst the Italians, as ex-Ferrari team boss Maurizio Arrivabene (2015-19) now reveals. “Sebastian Vettel also sent such dossiers,” Arrivabene recently told Sky Italy. “He wrote, spoke and shared everything.”

Describing Vettel’s documents as “almost useless” the former boss of the Scuderia compares Hamilton’s current situation with that of the German. “I don’t want to say anything bad about Sebastian, but everyone should mind their own business,” he said.

“When a driver starts playing engineer, that’s it. Then it’s really over. Drivers spend two or three days in the simulator and get a general impression, but the devil is in the details. When the car is on the track, the driver must provide relevant feedback so that the engineers can make targeted improvements – especially when there is potential.”

After a winless season in 2016, Arrivabene criticised Vettel in public. “Sebastian just needs to focus on the car,” he told Sky Italy. “He is a person who gives so much and this means he is interested in a bit of everything, so sometimes you have to re-focus him, remind him to be focused on the main job,” he told Sky Italia.

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Ferrari mantra: ‘A driver is no engineer’

These words have echoed down the ages from senior Ferrari officials to their drivers, with president John Elkann recently admonishing his drivers after a double DNF in Austin Texas. Having praised the Maraenllo engineers and mechanics, he turned on his drivers stating they should “talk less and focus on driving.”

Ferrari’s proud F1 tradition has often morphed into arrogance and intransigence amongst the senior engineers. Hamilton has clearly put their backs up by referencing how Mercedes do things differently and despite his insistence that things will change in 2026, its beyond Lewis’ control.

Knowing the culture in Maranello, Sebastian Vettel believes Hamilton faces an uphill task to return to winning ways. Speaking on the beyond the grid podcast this year the German noted: “The longer it takes, the harder it becomes.”

“But a lot of things need to come together…. You need to have the team, you need to have the people, you need the timing to be on the sweet spot.” Hamilton will return for 2026 in the hope the scrapping of the ground effect car designs will solve his barren four seasons since the titanic struggle with Verstappen in 2021.

Yet if Ferrari are once again ‘not at the races’ in terms of their 2026 F1 racing machine, there’s little Lewis can do other than hope, wait and even pray.

 

 

 

F1 struggles to find new race promoters

The global image of Formula One is that of a runaway success as the sport continues to grow from strength to strength. Next season will see the first new circuit added since Las Vegas back in 2023, although rumours that Madrid is behind schedule continue to circulate.

Yesterday it was announced that Portimao in Portugal will return to the F1 schedule for a two year run in 2027/8. Yet the pipeline once brimming with hopeful promoters brandishing unlimited cheques appears to be running somewhat dry.

As is often the case in modern F1, the Portuguese Grand Prix is being underwritten by the government of the country and given the exorbitant fees to host such an event, the commitment for now is for just two years… READ MORE