New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nVisual evidence of the long-doubted by highly anticipated union sent the F1 internet into meltdown.<\/p>\n
But that was as hot as the relationship got. It\u2019s all been downhill from there.<\/p>\n
The 2025 season was the worst in Hamilton\u2019s long and decorated Formula 1 career.<\/p>\n
It was the first year he failed to stand on the podium at least once, coming off the back of his first-ever winless campaigns in 2022 and 2023.<\/p>\n
He was blitzed by teammate Charles Leclerc, who scored a historic victory over his new partner. While Leclerc isn\u2019t the first teammate to beat Hamilton over a season, the 86-point margin between them is the largest intrateam defeat the Briton has ever suffered in Formula 1.<\/p>\n
Though sixth on the title table is a one-place improvement on last year\u2019s result, 156 points is his smallest score since Formula 1 introduced the current points schedule in 2010.<\/p>\n
Recalculating for the current points tally, only the 2009 season would be worse, but by only 33 points \u2014 though that year comprised just 17 rounds compared to this year\u2019s 24 grands prix and six sprints.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a set of numbers that\u2019d make even the most hardcore Hamilton fans wince.<\/p>\n
Certainly the man himself wasn\u2019t resiling from the difficulties or the toll of his career nadir at the year-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment I\u2019m only looking forward to the break,\u201d he said, per ESPN. \u201cJust disconnecting, not speaking to anyone. No-one will be able to get in touch with me this winter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI won\u2019t have my phone with me, and I\u2019m looking forward to that \u2014 completely unplug from the matrix. I\u2019ve generally always had it around, but this time it\u2019s going in the freaking bin.\u201d<\/p>\n
PIT TALK PODCAST: After a rare three-way title decider in Abu Dhabi, Michael and Matt run the rule over the 2025 grid to pick the season\u2019s 10 best performers \u2014 and the drivers deserving of dishonourable mentions.<\/p>\n
THE GRIM STATS<\/p>\n
If your gut wasn\u2019t already vicariously feeling the punch, consider this.<\/p>\n
Hamilton\u2019s best finish this season was fourth place.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the same best finish scored by the driver most likely to eventually replace him: Ferrari-backed Haas driver Oliver Bearman.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also something to be said for Hamilton\u2019s Mercedes successor, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, finishing only six points behind him on the championship table.<\/p>\n
Of course the relative quality of the Mercedes and Ferrari cars played the biggest role in that story, but it appears to justify Mercedes\u2019s gamble on the teenage Italian \u2014 and Wolff\u2019s preparedness for a post-Hamilton future.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in a sport where cognitive sharpness is extremely important, and I believe everyone has a shelf life,\u201d he said in Inside Mercedes, the team\u2019s authorised retelling of the 2023 and 2024 seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cI absolutely had it on my radar that Lewis would go.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s tempting to see those words as prescient today, particularly when you compare Hamilton\u2019s season to the driver offering the most relevant comparison: his teammate.<\/p>\n
Leclerc turned in another strong season despite Ferrari\u2019s limited success. He collected all seven of the team\u2019s podium trophies and scored its only pole position.<\/p>\n
In the process he obliterated his better decorated teammate, strengthening his grip on a team that already long considered him its next championship winner.<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton\u2019s 2025 vital statistics<\/p>\n
Qualifying result: 9.0 average<\/p>\n
Qualifying head to head: Leclerc leads 5-19<\/p>\n
Qualifying differential: Leclerc ahead by 3.6 places<\/p>\n
Time differential: Leclerc faster by 0.250 seconds<\/p>\n
Race result: 7.0 average<\/p>\n
Race head to head: Leclerc leads 3-18<\/p>\n
Race differential: Leclerc ahead 2.0 places<\/p>\n
Points: Leclerc ahead 156-242 (39-61 per cent)<\/p>\n
Worse, though, than the raw stats is the trend. Though Hamilton was a decent match for Leclerc through the 10 rounds from Imola to Monza \u2014 he was only 0.097 seconds slower on average through qualifying \u2014 he ended the season with some heavy defeats, shipping 40 points to Leclerc in the last eight rounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not concerned about it,\u201d Hamilton said of the gap to Leclerc. \u201cI\u2019ve just been focusing on my side during this period.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously Charles has done a great job. He\u2019s been there for seven years. He\u2019s got a team around him that he\u2019s worked with for many years, so it\u2019s a well-oiled machine.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn my side it\u2019s a new group of people. For me it\u2019s a new environment that I\u2019m still getting used to working with. Then I had another new member [performance engineer Luca Diella, replacing Riccardo Corte] halfway through the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all working as hard as we can, but getting that to work as well as someone that\u2019s had it for several years \u2026 you don\u2019t just do it like that. It takes a bit of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2025 season was only the fifth time Hamilton has been beaten by a teammate in his career, but three of those defeats have come from the last four campaigns.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s fuel for those who argue Hamilton isn\u2019t simply past his best \u2014 probable as Hamilton approaches his 41st birthday and 20th season in Formula 1 \u2014 but no longer has what it takes to be even respectably competitive in a field now dominated by drivers under the age of 30.<\/p>\n
Hamilton disagrees \u2014 of course he would \u2014 but there\u2019s important context to the worst season of his career that should save him from immediate judgment.<\/p>\n
(Photo by Clive Mason\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
HAMILTON\u2019S \u2018COMPLETE CHANGE\u2019<\/p>\n
Hamilton 86-point deficit to Leclerc is greater than the 71 points from Ferrari to Mercedes, which finished second in the championship.<\/p>\n
It would be easy to blame Ferrari\u2019s drop to fourth in the title race to the seven-time champion.<\/p>\n
But this year was always going to be a struggle. Hamilton emphasised the point from the very first race in Melbourne, where he half-jokingly lowballed that he only expected to be in the top 10 by the end of his first weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m back at square one,\u201d he said at the time. \u201cI\u2019m under no assumptions that it will be easy. It is not.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it perhaps turned out to be even more difficult than expected.<\/p>\n
A clear window into the struggles of his transition was his communication with race engineer Riccardo Adami. Their stilted and sometimes combative radio transmissions suggested the relationship was taking longer to gel than expected.<\/p>\n
It is of course fair to say \u2014 and Ferrari has justifiably argued \u2014 that radio conversations between driver and team often misrepresent reality given their high-pressure, high-stress context.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s also fair to say that the way Hamilton communicates with Adami bears little resemblance to his super-successful relationship with Peter Bonnington at Mercedes.<\/p>\n
Combined with differences in operation and protocol between Ferrari and Mercedes, and the adjustment curve was steeper than anticipated, team principal Fred Vasseur told F1\u2019s Beyond the Grid podcast.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if we underestimated the importance of the change \u2014 probably, because he spent 10 years at McLaren, then 12 with Mercedes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a kind of continuity \u2014 two teams based in the UK with the same engine, same environment.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Joining Ferrari] is a complete change for him, in his life, the culture of the team and everything. To do it in three test days in the winter period is quite difficult \u2014 and I think also the expectation was huge.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to put everything in place, and it\u2019s taking time. We have to also manage expectations and manage the noise around the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Awkward Hamilton radio exchange | 01:13<\/p>\n
FERRARI \u2018DIDN\u2019T ACHIEVE THE TARGET\u2019<\/p>\n
But it wasn\u2019t just the Ferrari transition Hamilton has struggled with. It was also the car.<\/p>\n
Ferrari has unequivocally failed to live up to its own expectations in 2025.<\/p>\n
Consider that his predecessor, Carlos Sainz, scored 85.3 per cent of Leclerc\u2019s points tally last year.<\/p>\n
If Hamilton scored at the same rate, he\u2019d have picked up an extra 50 points.<\/p>\n
Ferrari would still have been fourth in the constructors championship. It would still have scored 204 points fewer than in 2024.<\/p>\n
This was a season that frustrated even Leclerc, who believed he was performing at a career-best level but without the machinery to capitalise.<\/p>\n
Part of the reason for Ferrari\u2019s difficulties was that the team gambled and lost on big changes in the final year of regulations.<\/p>\n
When it became clear that this season was going nowhere, Ferrari decided to redirect all its resources to next year\u2019s new regulations in the hope of rocketing back to the top.<\/p>\n
Some upgrades already in development were delivered by the middle of the season, but others were cancelled, meaning the 2025 car never achieved its final form.<\/p>\n
The team waited until late in the year to reveal that it had switched focus in late April, which was probably at least partially because several other teams also switched off development early in anticipation of the new rules and didn\u2019t fade as badly.<\/p>\n
Williams, for example, completed almost no development for the year and still ended the season strongly.<\/p>\n
And though McLaren also switched focus early, the gap between the 2024 title rivals widened through the season.<\/p>\n
Development rate, top five<\/p>\n
1. Red Bull Racing: improved by 0.052 seconds<\/p>\n
2. Mercedes: degraded by 0.037 seconds<\/p>\n
3. Williams: degraded by 0.042 seconds<\/p>\n
4. McLaren: degraded by 0.109 seconds<\/p>\n
5. Ferrari: degraded by 0.134 seconds<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a long, long season in a dead-end car receiving no upgrades, and that undoubtedly played a role in Hamilton\u2019s head dropping in the final months.<\/p>\n
\u201cLewis was winning world championships, and it\u2019s a fact this year we didn\u2019t achieve the target of fighting for the world championship, so you have the frustration creating the situation,\u201d said Ferrari head of trackside engineering Matteo Togninalli, per Autosport.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy [is he] struggling? Again, I think part is the frustration, part is, as I said, that we need some time to adapt to each other, and maybe we both, the team and Lewis, under evaluated this at the beginning.<\/p>\n
\u201c[But] I\u2019m confident, as I said, I don\u2019t think the relationship is as bad as you all guys think. But I\u2019m sure with time we\u2019ll improve.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Photo by Mark Thompson\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
UNBEARABLE ANGER AND RAGE<\/p>\n
But there is a crucial second element to Hamilton\u2019s post-title downturn that reached its nadir with Ferrari.<\/p>\n
This generation of regulations has not played to his strengths.<\/p>\n
The return of ground-effect aerodynamics in 2022 halted the moment of both Mercedes and Hamilton \u2014 after all, even if Hamilton is past his prime, it\u2019s improbably the drop-off happened instantly in the 2021\u201322 off-season.<\/p>\n
While offering extreme levels of performance through high-speed corners, the outgoing generation of car was cumbersome at slower speed, over kerbs, on bumpy tracks and when hustled. It\u2019s even been literally painful to drive, regularly crashing into the track surface and jolting the drivers\u2019 spines.<\/p>\n
The result is a machine that wants to be driven in a particular way. It isn\u2019t Hamilton\u2019s way.<\/p>\n
Hamilton\u2019s magic is in the way he throws the car into the corners.<\/p>\n
He likes to be aggressive on the brakes to load up the front axle. With the front tyres gripping up but the rears lose, the car is extremely sensitive to his steering inputs, allowing Hamilton to finesse some early rotation before fully releasing the brakes.<\/p>\n
But a ground-effect car hates that approach. Because it must run at a consistent and low ride height, the front of the car doesn\u2019t dive down as much when a driver hits the brakes, which means Hamilton can\u2019t generate his desired front-end responsiveness.<\/p>\n
The problem is at its worst in qualifying, when Hamilton is pushing hard but the skittish car is offering his driving style no reward.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no surprise that, with the field so close this season, Hamilton became the first Ferrari driver to be eliminated in Q1 at three successive grands prix at the end of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have the words to describe the feeling that I have inside,\u201d he said after his final qualifying session in Abu Dhabi yielded 16th place. \u201cAn unbearable amount of anger and rage. There\u2019s not really much I can say about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a rage that\u2019s accumulated over four campaigns driving cars that don\u2019t give him the sort of feedback he\u2019s thrived on for an entire career.<\/p>\n
With his head already down at the end of a difficult year, he faded badly late in the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not a single thing I\u2019ll miss about these cars,\u201d he said in Abu Dhabi. \u201cIt is as simple as that. I have not enjoyed it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis generation was probably the worst one, I would say.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m praying that the next one is not worse than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Piastri upbeat despite title loss | 02:36<\/p>\n
THE HIGHEST STAKES ARE STILL TO COME<\/p>\n
Hamilton\u2019s struggles with the ground-effect era adds significantly to next season\u2019s stakes.<\/p>\n
While the 2026 rules will outlaw ground-effect aerodynamics and usher in a car more reminiscent of those from Hamilton\u2019s title-winning glory days, they\u2019ll present different challenges, particularly when it comes to the way the more heavily hybridised power unit works.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no guarantee the regulations will suit Hamilton \u2014 or that Ferrari will do a better job of building a competitive car than it has for the last four seasons.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s been able to fend off questions about his decline with excuses of circumstances and context, but many of those explanations, however, will expire next year.<\/p>\n
In 2026 he\u2019ll be judged on his merits. His 20th season could define when and how his career ends.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s one more significant hurdle for Hamilton to overcome before then: Ferrari itself.<\/p>\n
Ferrari pinching Hamilton from Mercedes was more than just a driver coup.<\/p>\n
The Italian team knows \u2014 or should know \u2014 that it has a mountain to climb to return to championship contention. The 2025 season, coming after 2024\u2019s near miss, only underlines that.<\/p>\n
Hamilton brings with him more than a decade in Mercedes\u2019s high-performing, title-winning environment. Baked into him are policies and processes that Mercedes used to break every one of the records Ferrari set for domination in the 2000s with Michael Schumacher.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s brought all that knowledge with him to Maranello. Ferrari doesn\u2019t have to turn itself into Mercedes, but it should find that it can adapt plenty of those lessons.<\/p>\n
But that doesn\u2019t seem to be happening.<\/p>\n
Ferrari chairman John Elkann seemed to give the game away via his bizarre criticisms in November, when he accused the drivers of talking too much, of being insufficiently focused on driving.<\/p>\n
It invoked memories of Sebastian Vettel\u2019s hopeful but ultimately unfulfilled stint at Ferrari, when tensions flared between team and driver as the German attempted to apply title-winning lessons learnt at Red Bull Racing to the prancing horse.<\/p>\n
He copped a whack from then team boss Maurizio Arrivabene, who told the media he needed \u201cto focus on the car\u201d rather than the biggest picture \u2014 in other words, stick to driving.<\/p>\n
Arrivabene doubled down on that criticism speaking to Sky Sport Italia last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone has to do their job,\u201d he said. \u201cIf the driver then starts acting as an engineer, it\u2019s all over.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Photo by Clive Mason\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Hamilton has spent the year making notes and holding meetings to try to impart some of his Mercedes wisdom.<\/p>\n
Some of his ideas relate to car performance \u2014 ensuring that next year\u2019s car behaves in a way that will suit him \u2014 while others pertain to the structure of the team.<\/p>\n
But this appears to have become a source of tension, much like it did in Vettel\u2019s days.<\/p>\n
According to ESPN, the feedback has received a cool reaction. While some have welcomed his perspective, others have apparently resented his input.<\/p>\n
Speaking in Abu Dhabi, Hamilton doubled down on his mission to create change before 2026, including shuffling staff on his side of the garage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got to decide what my approach is when it comes to sitting down with the key stakeholders to make the decisions, and how that approach is to create the change that\u2019s needed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery weekend I\u2019ve written down what I felt went wrong that weekend, the decisions I\u2019ve taken, so there\u2019s a lot of learnings to do there. Through my break I will analyse those decisions and make markers on how I can make better decisions in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy surroundings in terms of personal personnel, team personnel, how you utilise people, whether people need to move into different positions to work better \u2014 all these different things need to be looked upon in my personal space so that we can optimise our teamwork.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether he could carry on in 2026 with an unchanged team, his reply was unequivocal.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Hamilton couldn\u2019t have imagined the beating he\u2019d take in 2025. Certainly his first season with Ferrari hasn\u2019t gone to plan.<\/p>\n
But only one year through what he\u2019s hinted as being a three-year contract, the mission is far from over.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t regret the decision I made joining the team,\u201d he said. \u201cI know it takes time to build and grow within an organisation, and I expected that.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s worth remembering too that Hamilton\u2019s Ferrari switch was always predicated on finding success under the new rules. While that doesn\u2019t excuse his underperformance in 2025, it\u2019s a reason to pause before judging the seven-time champion on just his first season in Maranello.<\/p>\n
Certainly he isn\u2019t getting himself bogged down in the tribulations of his career-worst season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t,\u201d he said when asked how he looks back on his first Ferrari season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just look forwards.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton started the 2025 season by breaking the internet. He ended it by throwing his phone in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[944,193102,12295,1724,64,63,689,132224,193100,193091,193116,193085,193094,4971,18257,33102,154479,13275,193111,193083,2055,16189,193103,193101,800,2057,193110,817,193099,158022,193090,813,816,653,13276,2105,14211,193109,28086,49575,193107,2101,2328,2097,1737,151395,2082,5120,166733,647,844,193084,3583,677,5242,193087,68795,2119,193112,36334,16280,193089,193088,193106,101434,14217,14218,193095,193108,193105,193113,81644,151391,18904,851,22305,81217,193093,3595,85,193092,193115,193096,193114,13773,193104,182905,14219,22294,23063,43367,193086,193097,3586,660,14228,12000,193098,25247],"class_list":["post-350874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-abu-dhabi","tag-adjustment-curve","tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-car-performance","tag-career-ends","tag-career-nadir","tag-career-best-level","tag-career-worse-season","tag-career-worst-season","tag-carlos-sainz","tag-championship-contention","tag-championship-table","tag-championship-winner","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-combative-radio-transmissions","tag-complete-change","tag-constructors-championship","tag-development-rate","tag-driver-coup","tag-drivers-deserving","tag-espn-inc","tag-europe","tag-extreme-levels","tag-f1","tag-final-form","tag-final-qualifying-session","tag-first-ever-winless-campaigns","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-fox-sports-news","tag-fred-vasseur","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-grands-prix","tag-ground-effect-aerodynamics","tag-ground-effect-car","tag-ground-effect-era","tag-high-stress-context","tag-italian-team","tag-italy","tag-john-elkann","tag-lando-norris","tag-luca-diella","tag-mark-thompson","tag-matt","tag-maurizio-arrivabene","tag-melbourne","tag-michael-schumacher","tag-modena","tag-northern-europe","tag-oceania","tag-oliver-bearman","tag-one-place-improvement","tag-peter-bonnington","tag-pit-talk","tag-podium-trophies","tag-points-tally","tag-pole-position","tag-post-title-downturn","tag-power-unit-works","tag-prancing-horse","tag-qualifying-differential","tag-race-differential","tag-race-result","tag-radio-conversations","tag-rare-three-way-title","tag-raw-stats","tag-relative-quality","tag-riccardo-adami","tag-riccardo-corte","tag-ride-height","tag-sebastian-vettel","tag-seven-time-champion","tag-shelf-life","tag-single-thing","tag-southern-europe","tag-sports","tag-successive-grands-prix","tag-super-successful-relationship","tag-switched-focus","tag-team-personnel","tag-team-principal","tag-teenage-italian","tag-three-way-title-decider","tag-time-differential","tag-title-race","tag-title-rivals","tag-title-table","tag-title-winning-lessons","tag-trackside-engineering","tag-united-kingdom","tag-victoria","tag-vital-statistics","tag-western-asia","tag-winter-period","tag-world-championships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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