{"id":49510,"date":"2025-08-07T04:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T04:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/49510\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T04:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T04:03:09","slug":"lewis-hamilton-told-to-quit-ferrari-immediately-and-make-120m-demand-f1-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/49510\/","title":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton told to quit Ferrari immediately and make \u00a3120m demand | F1 | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone<\/a> has suggested that Lewis Hamilton<\/a> should offer to step aside at Ferrari<\/a>, provided the Italian constructor coughs up the remainder of his reported \u00a3120million contract. The Brit has suffered two brutal race weekends in succession, battering his confidence heading into the summer break.<\/p>\n

Hamilton\u2019s Ferrari<\/a> stint started with dreams of an eighth Drivers\u2019 Championship title, and Ferrari<\/a>\u2019s first since Kimi Raikkonen in 2007, but things haven\u2019t panned out how anyone expected. After 14 races, the Brit remains without a podium finish – his worst start to an F1 season – and he now sits 42 points behind team-mate Charles Leclerc, who narrowly missed out on a sixth trip to the rostrum in 2025 after starting the Hungarian Grand Prix from pole position<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Following qualifying at the Hungaroring, Hamilton was particularly downbeat, describing his performance as \u201cuseless\u201d and suggesting that Ferrari<\/a> need to \u201cchange driver\u201d. Ecclestone, 94, backed up the seven-time world champion\u2019s comment, but under one condition.<\/p>\n

\u201cLewis is very talented, was and probably still is,\u201d Ecclestone told the Daily Mail<\/a>. \u201cBut like a lot of leading sports personalities, when they reach the top, there is only one way to go, and it\u2019s not a good direction. It\u2019s only down. They get tired. Lewis is tired. He\u2019s been doing what he is doing forever.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe needs a rest from it for good, a total reset to do something completely different. He may not think it, but he will soon get used to doing other stuff away from motor racing in retirement. I think he should have done it a while ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guy is not a cheat. But he would be cheating himself if he goes on. He should stop now. If I were looking after him, I would negotiate with Ferrari<\/a> immediately and say, \u2018If you have someone to replace Lewis, he\u2019ll step aside.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

For the latest breaking stories and headlines, sign up to our Daily Express F1 newsletter<\/a>, or join our WhatsApp community<\/a> here.<\/p>\n

Ecclestone continued: \u201cIf I were Lewis, I would say to Ferrari<\/a> that I wanted to be paid all my contract, in full. They signed him because they thought he could do a job. \u2018It isn\u2019t working, so I can I can make way if you want me to, but that\u2019s the arrangement.\u2019 It could work for both parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamilton\u2019s Ferrari<\/a> contract, which runs until the end of the 2026 campaign, is worth a reported \u00a360m per season, with the Scuderia also committing to investment in the 40-year-old\u2019s numerous charitable enterprises.<\/p>\n

If Hamilton were to take up Ecclestone\u2019s suggestion, the former F1 supremo believes that star rookies Isack Hadjar and Gabriel Bortoleto would be strong contenders to replace him. Ferrari also have access to Oliver Bearman<\/a>, who is driving for Haas while remaining part of their young driver stable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has suggested that Lewis Hamilton should offer to step aside at Ferrari, provided…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[27533,1687,9049,831,372,6537,21943,832,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-49510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-f1","tag-bernie-ecclestone","tag-f1","tag-f1-news","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-hungarian-grand-prix","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}