Lewis Hamilton insists he has not given up hope. The seven-time world champion believes that the sweeping regulation changes to Formula 1 in 2026 will offer Ferrari a fresh start after their disastrous debut season in red.

Yet not everyone in the paddock is convinced. One prominent Formula 1 expert, in particular, has cast serious doubt on Hamilton’s ability to turn the tide, and the reasons point directly at the Briton himself.

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A romance that quickly soured

Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari was billed as one of the most romantic stories in modern Formula 1. When the partnership was announced, it felt like destiny: the sport’s most successful driver joining its most iconic and successful F1 team, both chasing one last golden era together. Expectations were enormous.

Reality, however, proved brutal. Hamilton, now aged 40, never truly found his rhythm in the Ferrari. Week after week, he trailed his teammate, Charles Leclerc, often looking uncomfortable and lacking in confidence. By the end of the season, Hamilton had finished a distant sixth in the Drivers’ Championship without achieving a single podium finish, while Ferrari struggled to justify the hype surrounding his arrival.

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Hope was pinned on the 2026 regulations

Despite the bleak first year, Hamilton went into the winter break feeling optimistic. The 2026 season will introduce radically new engine regulations which will also significantly affect aerodynamics and car balance. In short, Formula 1 is about to hit the reset button.

There are encouraging whispers inside the paddock that Ferrari’s new power unit is competitive, if not outright strong. With the technical landscape reshuffled, Hamilton believes the playing field could finally tilt back in his favour.

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Schumacher’s doubts go deeper than the car

However, Sky Germany expert Ralf Schumacher is far from convinced. According to the former Formula 1 driver, Hamilton’s problems extend beyond machinery.

“Winter testing would have helped in the past,” he told Sport1 website. “But behind the scenes, you hear that he doesn’t like simulators. He’s still looking for that old driving feel.”

For Schumacher, this is a cause for concern.

Perhaps controversially, the German suggests: “That tells me it’s not just age, but also a mental issue. He’s no longer willing to open up,” explained the six-time Grand Prix winner, drawing on his own experiences, albeit, as he admits, “on a different level”.

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A growing weakness in a changing sport

Schumacher sees a “huge disadvantage” for Hamilton heading into the new era. The expert doubts the Briton will fully adapt to Ferrari’s future cars, even with the new regulations

. “The car will be more nervous,” he said. “Leclerc can handle that. Hamilton needs stability at the rear.”

This preference, he argues, has always been part of Hamilton’s DNA.

“He was never one to tinker with the setup, that was already evident in his Formula 3 days,” he said. At Mercedes, team boss Toto Wolff often emphasised that the drivers drove the car while the engineers handled the setup.

“You can’t change that overnight. That’s a weakness.”

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Chemistry issues inside the garage

Beyond driving style, Schumacher also pointed to a more personal issue: Hamilton’s relationship with his race engineer, Riccardo Adami.

‘They should go on holiday together,” he suggested bluntly. “The chemistry isn’t right. That’s a huge disadvantage.”

For a driver of Hamilton’s calibre, such friction can be costly, particularly in a new team where trust and communication are paramount.

Perhaps Schumacher’s sharpest criticism concerns Hamilton’s attitude. What frustrates the TV pundit most is “how he deals with his problems, this back-and-forth, this resignation. I expect more from someone of his status.”

Whether Schumacher’s theory proves correct will become clear in 2026. For now, an uncomfortable question lingers over Maranello: is Lewis Hamilton simply waiting for the right car, or has Formula 1 already begun to move on without him?

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NEXT ARTICLE – FIA plans to reduce the power of the manufacturers

There is grave concern at the FIA over how the all new 2026 Formula One power units will perform. In a desperate bid to prevent an epic failure in the racing spectacle, F1’s governing body convened an emergency meeting with the manufacturers in Bahrain to correct the ‘over optimistic’ power output from the hybrid side of the new engines.

Concerns were first raised by Christian Horner in 2023 that the all new specification of power units would create “Frankenstein monsters” due to an over reliance on electrical output. Almost two years later the FIA’s pow wow in Bahrain sought to address this issue.

The problem is that at a number of circuits where braking is limited and the straights are long, that the cars will be incapable of generating enough electrical charge to deliver the mandated 50% of power output.

 

Concerns electrical output overstated

This would result in cars ruing out of electrical charge towards the end of the straights, visibly slowing the cars as they approached the next turn. The spectacle could be disastrous for the fans and the series would descend into farce.

Yet any reduction in the amount of electrical output had to be agreed by all but one of the PU manufacturers and such agreement could not be found. The result was both the FIA and FOM issuing statements suggesting the current F1 power cycle could be truncated and a return to V*’s introduced before even 2030.

Foiled by their attempt to introduce what would be a mere software adjustment for all the teams, the FIA issued a dictate in August which outlined how they would prevent F1 becoming a farce or dominated by a single manufacturer who has aced the new PU regulations.

FIA director of day to day operations, Nicolas Tombazis revealed: “We’ve introduced a…READ MORE ON THIS STORY