This week marked nine years since Nico Rosberg suddenly announced his retirement from F1, so drained from the task of beating Lewis Hamilton that he could no longer go on.<\/p>\n
Rosberg\u2019s retirement gave birth to a fun new game at the end of each season when everyone tries to predict which driver could walk away without warning. At the end of a miserable first season with Ferrari, Hamilton himself is the perfect candidate in 2025\u2026<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton has had a miserable first season with Ferrari<\/p>\n
A version of this article originally appeared in PlanetF1.com\u2019s conclusions from the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix<\/a><\/p>\n Blame Nico Rosberg.<\/p>\n Ever since the newly crowned world champion walked away without warning in 2016, it has become a sport itself \u2013 all part of the fun \u2013 to second-guess which driver might be thinking about dropping the mic at the end of each season.<\/p>\n The candidates are relatively easy to spot: former world champions of a certain age who have fallen on hard times and increasingly carry the tormented, weary look of yesterday\u2019s man.<\/p>\n The most memorable example of the Abu Dhabi Guessing Game came at the end of 2019, the year Sebastian Vettel\u2019s wobble turned into an irreversible slide at Ferrari.<\/p>\n Lewis Hamilton vs Charles Leclerc: Ferrari head-to-head scores for F1 2025<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49\u00a0F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates<\/a><\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49\u00a0F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates<\/a><\/p>\n On that occasion, a prominent F1 reporter had convinced himself from watching Vettel\u2019s body language before the race that he was going to announce his retirement any minute now.<\/p>\n Hang on! Was that merely the setting sun in Seb\u2019s eyes on the grid just then? Or..?<\/p>\n Perhaps our friend had that famous Mark Webber quote on Vettel \u2013 \u201cI think he\u2019ll retire early \u2013 he\u2019ll probably take a blast in the red car, then sayonara\u201d \u2013 ringing in his ears.<\/p>\n Or perhaps, given that Vettel\u2019s F1 career continued for a further three seasons, he simply misread the situation entirely and the study of body language is something that is best left to the experts.<\/p>\n One could not possibly say.<\/p>\n Yet it is that sort of treatment \u2013 people constantly looking for the little signs and analysing every single quote to the nth degree \u2013 Lewis Hamilton can probably expect this week.<\/p>\n If so, he will have brought it on himself to a large extent given some of his recent statements<\/a> about not looking forward to next season and being \u201ceager for it to end.\u201d<\/p>\n His nine-word interview after his latest Q1 exit<\/a> on Friday in Qatar was the latest mark of a driver down in the dumps to the point of being disinterested.<\/p>\n For all John Elkann\u2019s complaints that his drivers should \u201ctalk less\u201d, though, it has been said this season that Ferrari has not helped Hamilton in that regard either this season.<\/p>\n Unlike his Mercedes days, when he would often be allowed to cool off before having to face the media, in 2025 Hamilton has had a microphone shoved in his face instantly moments after climbing out of the car.<\/p>\n So instead of the considered, thoughtful answers he would provide in the past, now every race \u2013 sometimes every session \u2013 brings an all-new outburst from one of the more emotional drivers on the grid at the best of times.<\/p>\n Fred Vasseur had a point when he said earlier this season that Hamilton\u2019s \u201cextreme\u201d comments to the media<\/a>\u00a0have only made a bad situation worse, yet the team has also failed to save him from himself.<\/p>\n More on Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49 Lewis Hamilton news<\/a><\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49 Ferrari news<\/a><\/p>\n Is it the car or is it me? That\u2019s the question Hamilton has grappled with for the last four years.<\/p>\n