Ferrari and Hamilton Thought They Were Perfect for Each Other. That Honeymoon Is Over
When Lewis Hamilton announced he would be leaving Mercedes after 12 seasons in favor of a shot at bringing a championship title to Ferrari, the pair were quickly and loudly dubbed the strongest driver-team duo in Formula 1.
For a storied team like Ferrari—shackled by an 18-year World Drivers' Championship drought—the news that the seven-time champ would join the team brought with it an inauguration-like reception. A year before Italy would appoint a new pope, the nation had found faith in a 40-year-old race car driver turning in his Silver Arrow for Rosso Corsa.
But the celebrations soured swiftly. Halfway through the 2025 F1 season, Hamilton sits in sixth place in the driver standings behind his former teammate George Russell, who sits pretty in fourth, and his current teammate, Charles Leclerc, who is now fifth. Italy's other hope for the future—18-year-old Bologna-born wunderkind Kimi Antonelli—and Hamilton's replacement at Mercedes trails just behind him in seventh. Getty
While the spring brought the promise of speed, including a sprint win in China and a sprint podium in Miami, the first half of the season has been a rude awakening. Throughout the first 14 races of 2025, Hamilton's once-optimistic view of Ferrari has been tested. Ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, he said he refuses to not win a championship with the team like former Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso.
'If you look at the team over the last 20 years, they've had amazing drivers: Kimi [Raikkonen], Fernando [Alonso], Sebastian [Vettel]—all world champions. However, they didn't win a world championship [at Ferrari]. And for me, I refuse for that to be the case with me.' (Raikkonen did win a title with Ferrari in 2007.)
However, an 18th-place sprint qualifying position and a 16th-place starting grid place in the feature race in Spa chipped away at Hamilton's confidence. By Saturday's Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying session—where he failed to make it into Q3 while Leclerc took pole position—his resolve had all but disintegrated.
'I am useless. Absolutely useless,' he said. 'The team has no problem. You can see [Leclerc's] car is on pole. They probably need to change drivers.' The dramatic response echoed Hamilton's comments in April when he said the team bosses were 'not happy' with his performance and that he needed a 'brain transplant' to adapt to the Ferrari SF-25. Getty NurPhoto
The prestigious title of 'Ferrari driver,' Hamilton has discovered, means taming something wild. The prancing horse turns out to be less of a polished, well-groomed show horse and more of a mustang, bucking off even the most experienced of drivers. In a sport full of adrenaline junkies, that is part of the appeal: to achieve what few have done before. To tighten the reins and win a championship with the temperamental beast.
But to do so requires upending a systemic culture of mistakes and missteps.
During the mini-break between Silvertone and Spa, Hamilton claimed to have drafted up documents detailing where the team goes from here and met with Ferrari's chairman, the team CEO, and Ferrari's team principal. The scramble of high-profile meetings made the team dynamic look less collaborative and more desperate for a change of pace.
Leclerc, who has been the team's darling since 2019, has trudged through his own trenches at the team—this past weekend included. After securing Ferrari's first pole of the season, the Monegasque was poised for a podium finish. Leclerc crossed the finish line just shy of third place after ranting in a lengthy radio message during Sunday's race: 'This is so incredibly frustrating. We've lost all competitiveness. You just have to listen to me; I would have found a different way of managing those issues. Now it's just undrivable. Undrivable. It's a miracle if we finish on the podium.'
Hamilton, in contrast, took the blame for his 12th-place finish: 'Really sorry about this weekend guys, for losing you points.' Following his points-less performance, he insisted he still loves the sport. 'I still love it… I still love the team,' Hamilton said. 'I look forward to coming back [in Zandvoort] … Hopefully I will be back.' Getty
As Hamilton attempts to make peace with the career-defining risk he chose, he must also accept his role in steering another future: Carlos Sainz's career path. The former Ferrari driver who signed onto Williams for the 2025 season has only scored 16 points so far this season and is sandwiched between two rookies in 16th place. Sainz dragged his carbon fiber machine into 14th place on Sunday. Hamilton's move may have set off a domino effect in the driver market as seats opened up for rookies, but his and other drivers' insistence on extending their careers in F1 also clogged the pipeline from the junior series to the big leagues.
Touted as one of the greatest drivers in the sport's history, Hamilton looked to Ferrari as the natural solution to his eight-time title challenge.
'This is the most positive feeling I've had in a long time,' Hamilton said just six months ago. 'I've always imagined what it would be like sitting in the cockpit surrounded by red.'
However, the dream of taming a prancing horse seems to be left somewhere on track in Hungary—just like so many drivers who have looked to Maranello for success. As for Ferrari, the team is left with the question: If Hamilton can't fix them, who can?
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