{"id":413326,"date":"2026-01-14T23:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T23:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/413326\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T23:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T23:12:11","slug":"hamilton-backed-for-eighth-title-as-andretti-refuses-to-write-f1-star-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/413326\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamilton backed for eighth title as Andretti refuses to write F1 star off"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lewis Hamilton<\/a> had a very difficult season in 2025, but Mario Andretti is certainly not ready to write him off. The American legend is even convinced that Hamilton can secure his eighth Formula 1<\/a> world title.Hamilton walked through the Formula 1<\/a> paddock in the final weeks of last season with his spirits low. The Briton couldn\u2019t find speed in his Ferrari<\/a> and looked despondent, while some analysts felt it would be wiser for him to call it a day in his long career.Andretti believes in Hamilton\u2019s resurgenceHamilton\u2014now 41 years old\u2014won\u2019t give up that easily and will be on the grid again next season. Mario Andretti, the 1978 Formula 1<\/a> world champion, firmly believes Sir Lewis will be capable of achieving great things with Ferrari<\/a>.\"Andretti\"\/<\/p>\n

Photo: Race Pictures<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think you could ever count him out,\u201d Andretti says in an exclusive conversation with GPblog.<\/p>\n

“There’s too much talent there to say \u2018well, no\u2019. To me, it’s going to be up to him, of course. I don’t know what his mental situation is or desire, but you can never doubt the talent. I mean, not with the record that he has in the sport.”<\/p>\n

Asked whether Hamilton can become Formula 1<\/a> world champion again, Andretti is particularly clear: \u201cHe could be world champion again, absolutely.”Ferrari at a disadvantage?The car Hamilton will use to chase that eighth world title will be unveiled on January 23<\/a>. The Italian team does not (yet) have a ‘trick’ in the engine, as Mercedes and Red Bull Ford do. As a result, the Scuderia could have a significant disadvantage compared to the competition.It\u2019s no coincidence Ferrari<\/a> is trying to get this \u2018trick\u2019 banned by the FIA; otherwise, Hamilton would be fighting a largely unwinnable battle to begin with. Mario Andretti, however, has no issues with this \u2018trick\u2019.<\/a>GPblog’s F1 Paddock UpdateWant to stay up-to-date with what happens in the F1<\/a> paddock? Then GPblog’s F1 Paddock Update video is the perfect way to do it. Subscribe to GPblog’s YouTube channel and turn on notifications to never miss the latest episodes.<\/p>\n

Follow us on Spotify as well!<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton had a very difficult season in 2025, but Mario Andretti is certainly not ready to write…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,5607,817,35119,826,813,816,823,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-413326","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-exclusive","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-f1-news","13":"tag-ferrari","14":"tag-formula-1","15":"tag-formula1","16":"tag-lewis-hamilton","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413326","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=413326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}