Lewis Hamilton\u2019s age is \u201cthe elephant in the room\u201d when it comes to his challenging start to life at Ferrari in the F1 2025 season.<\/p>\n
That is the opinion of Sky F1 pundit and Mercedes simulator driver Anthony Davidson, who believes Hamilton \u201chas never been the same driver\u201d since F1\u2019s ground-effect rules were introduced in 2022.<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton\u2019s age \u2018the elephant in the room\u2019 at Ferrari<\/p>\n
Hamilton, who turned 40 in January, has had a largely disappointing start to his Ferrari career since his blockbuster move from Mercedes over the winter.<\/p>\n
The British driver has struggled to adjust to his new surroundings with the first half of Hamilton\u2019s season defined by a series of tense exchanges with his new race engineer<\/a>, Riccardo Adami, over team radio.<\/p>\n Despite being the most statistically successful driver in F1 history, with a joint-record seven World Championships and 105 race victories to his name, Hamilton has been restricted to just two wins since the beginning of the 2022 season.<\/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 In an interview last week, Hamilton admitted that life at Ferrari<\/a> is \u201cnot at all what I expected\u201d with the experience \u201cmore intense in so many areas.\u201d<\/p>\n Appearing on Sky F1\u2019s coverage of the Hungarian Grand Prix, Davidson, who made 24 F1 appearances between 2002 and 2008 before enjoying a successful career in endurance racing, believes Hamilton has \u201cnever\u201d hit the same heights personally since F1\u2019s move to ground-effect cars in 2022.<\/p>\n And he believes the Ferrari driver\u2019s advanced age is \u201cthe elephant in the room\u201d this season, arguing that it is inevitable for an athlete to decline as he grows older.<\/p>\n Put to him that Hamilton may have underestimated the challenges of moving from Mercedes to Ferrari, Davidson said: \u201cI don\u2019t think he would be surprised by that. I\u2019m not surprised to hear that he found it difficult and very different.<\/p>\n \u201cWe all know what Ferrari is like, at least from the outside.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a few friends, ex-colleagues that are on the inside and they confirm the beliefs from in the paddock that it\u2019s a pressure cooker.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a high expectation on the Italian national team to perform and the request of the standards are incredibly high.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd now you\u2019ve got a seven-time World Champion arriving on the scene as well, so naturally the expectations are on Lewis\u2019s shoulders and all the fans, the Tifosi, expecting results.<\/p>\n \u201cSo he knew what he was walking into, but it\u2019s never easy.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a driver, you know the challenges of changing teams. Even changing car to car, like we\u2019ll see next year with the rules changing and like we saw in 2022.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, Lewis has never been the same driver since we saw the 2022 regulations come along and he\u2019s had to work harder than ever before to rework his style that he\u2019s done many times before in Formula 1.<\/p>\n \u201cThe cars have changed a long way since the normally aspirated V8 and the grooved tyres that he once drove, for example, and he\u2019s had to reinvent himself along the way.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is just another hurdle that he\u2019s having to overcome.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I don\u2019t mind saying it because it\u2019s the elephant in the room, and I\u2019ve been there myself as a driver: age is a factor as well.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like this time of reflection for him, as an athlete ages, it does [affect performance]<\/p>\n \u201cWhatever anyone says \u2013 even himself, others that are very involved with Lewis, fans \u2013 they won\u2019t understand where I\u2019m coming from, but I\u2019ve lived and breathed it as an athlete. I\u2019m now retired at 46.<\/p>\n \u201cYou start asking yourself questions. It\u2019s only natural.\u201d<\/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 Davidson\u2019s comments come after Hamilton revealed that he is embracing a team-leadership role in his bid to turn his Ferrari career around, holding various meetings with senior figures and submitting a number of \u201cdocuments\u201d proposing improvements to both the team and the car.<\/p>\n