Hamilton has been comprehensively beaten by teammate Charles Leclerc, whose reputation has been enhanced by how comfortably he\u2019s kept a handle on the well-decorated newcomer.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Signs of progress have been tempered by wild inconsistency, which has slowly eroded the unbridled positivity with which the season started.<\/p>\n
The nadir was reached in Hungary before the mid-season break.<\/p>\n
At a circuit for which Hamilton holds every meaningful record, he was knocked out in Q2 and lumbered to his first scoreless finish of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey probably need to change drivers,\u201d he lamented after qualifying 12th, having described himself as \u201cabsolutely useless\u201d on a day Leclerc took an improbable pole position.<\/p>\n
After the race he cryptically referred to \u201ca lot going on in the background that\u2019s not great\u201d before even hinting that there was a chance he wouldn\u2019t return after the mid-season break.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look forward to coming back. Hopefully I will be back.\u201d<\/p>\n
The honeymoon is over. After just 14 weekends, the question is whether the marriage can last.<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton after getting knocked out in qualifying in Hungary. (AP Photo\/Denes Erdos)Source: AP<\/p>\n
\u2018THERE\u2019LL BE SOME TEARS\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n
Hamilton hasn\u2019t shied away from his difficulties this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last god-knows-how-many seasons have been hard in their own way,\u201d he said ahead of the previous race in Hungary, per Sky Sports. \u201cThis one has definitely been the most intense one, I would say, just from a work perspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cIntegrating into a new culture and into a new team \u2014 it\u2019s not gone smoothly in all areas, and it\u2019s been a real battle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely need to get away and recharge, be around the kids, laugh, let go.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure there\u2019ll be some tears at some point, and I think that\u2019s really healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tears will presumably be reserved for any look at his season statistics.<\/p>\n
The headline is grim: no poles, no wins, no podiums.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the first time in his career he\u2019s got this deep into the season without a grand prix podium trophy, though he does have some silverware for winning the sprint in China and finishing third in the short race in Miami.<\/p>\n
But his head-to-head comparison with Leclerc is worse.<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton\u2019s vital statistics, rounds 1 to 14<\/b><\/p>\n
Qualifying result<\/b>: 8.0 average (best: 4th)<\/p>\n
Qualifying head to head<\/b>: trailing Leclerc 4-10<\/p>\n
Qualifying differential<\/b>: 2.9 places behind Leclerc<\/p>\n
Time differential<\/b>: 0.169 seconds slower than Leclerc<\/p>\n
Race result<\/b>: 6.5 average (best: 4th)<\/p>\n
Race head to head<\/b>: trailing Leclerc 2-11 <\/p>\n
Race differential<\/b>: 1.5 places behind Leclerc<\/p>\n
Points<\/b>: trailing Leclerc 109-151 (42-58 per cent)<\/p>\n
His qualifying stats are particularly alarming.<\/p>\n
Hamilton is the sport\u2019s most prolific qualifier, having claimed more poles than any other driver in Formula 1 history.<\/p>\n
While Leclerc has a well-earnt reputation as an extremely fast one-lap driver \u2014 he\u2019s amassed 27 poles despite rarely having the quickest car at his disposal \u2014 no-one could have expected such a one-sided tally.<\/p>\n
His average deficit of 0.169 seconds is far from an obliteration, but it puts Ferrari fifth on the list of closest teammates, behind the drivers at Williams, McLaren, Sauber and Haas.<\/p>\n
But put another way, the only drivers qualifying more distantly to their teammates than Hamilton are Jack Doohan and Franco Colapinto at Alpine, Liam Lawson at Racing Bulls, Lance Stroll at Aston Martin, Andrea Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes and Yuki Tsunoda at Red Bull Racing.<\/p>\n
In other words, he\u2019s faring better than only those drivers with asterisks \u2014 they\u2019re either rookies, driving Red Bull Racing\u2019s deeply troubled car or Lance Stroll being belted by Fernando Alonso.<\/p>\n
Charles Leclerc is comfortably keeping Lewis Hamilton in his box. (Photo by Giuseppe CACACE \/ AFP)Source: AFP<\/p>\n
THE UPSHOT<\/b><\/p>\n
But averages don\u2019t tell the complete story.<\/p>\n
Visualise a chart that plots the qualifying gap between Hamilton and Leclerc for each race. The points are mostly on Leclerc\u2019s side of the horizontal axis. Some of them are very deep on Leclerc\u2019s side, reflecting a bigger margin, though increasingly they\u2019re closer to the middle line. Only four of the 14 dots are in Hamilton\u2019s territory.<\/p>\n
If you draw a trend line between all the points \u2014 a line of best fit from round 1 to round 14 \u2014 it slopes gently towards Hamilton, swinging 0.128 seconds in his favour.<\/p>\n
That means Hamilton has been closing the gap over the course of the season.<\/p>\n
That was clearly the case before the Belgium-Hungary double-header before the break, where his momentum was halted by a set of poor qualifying results.<\/p>\n
If you remove those two races from the chart, the trend line is sharply more positive.<\/p>\n
Hamilton\u2019s gap to Leclerc, trend line<\/b><\/p>\n
Season overall<\/b>: Hamilton improving by 0.128 seconds<\/p>\n
Before Belgium<\/b>: Hamilton improving by 0.297 seconds<\/p>\n
Of course this doesn\u2019t mean Hamilton will necessarily overcome Leclerc eventually. Nor should Belgium and Hungary simply be ignored because they buck a more positive trend.<\/p>\n
But it is a counterpoint to the idea that Hamilton has been meandering rudderless throughout the year.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also worth considering that Belgium and Hungary weren\u2019t as bad as his headline results made them seem.<\/p>\n
In Spa-Francorchamps he suffered a Q1 knockout in sprint qualifying and again in grand prix qualifying.<\/p>\n
On his first lap in SQ1 he was half a second quicker than Leclerc before a mistake at Stavelot ruined his lap. With his second lap he had set an identical time to Leclerc in the first two sectors before a spin at the final chicane knocked him out of the session.<\/p>\n
In grand prix qualifying he had set a time just 0.029 seconds slower than Leclerc in Q1 \u2014 more than fast enough to make it through to the next segment \u2014 but had the lap deleted for exceeding track limits at Raidillon. His next-best lap wasn\u2019t good enough to make it through to Q2.<\/p>\n
They were all Hamilton mistakes, but it was clear he was on the pace.<\/p>\n
In Hungary he was knocked out of Q2 on genuine pace. His margin to Leclerc was 0.247 seconds at the time he was eliminated, but he was only 0.015 seconds short making it through to Q3, which would have meaningfully changed the complexion of his weekend.<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton in happier times. (Photo by Greg Baker \/ AFP)Source: AFP<\/p>\n
REASON 1: A DIFFICULT TRANSITION<\/b><\/p>\n
But even if there\u2019s some hope in the trend, Hamilton has undeniably been shown the way by Leclerc so far.<\/p>\n
There are a few explanations.<\/p>\n
The first is that there\u2019s never been a more difficult time to change teams in Formula 1.<\/p>\n
The ground-effect era has produced a series of extremely specific, particular cars. Combined with the power units, for which development has been frozen for years, each team\u2019s package is distinct to drive.<\/p>\n
That needs to be considered in the context of Hamilton having been a Mercedes-backed driver at British-based teams for his entire career.<\/p>\n
Team principal Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Vasseur, who has defended Hamilton from critics all season, said it\u2019s clear that the difficulty of changing teams was greater than he and Hamilton had anticipated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think perhaps that we underestimate the challenge for Lewis at the beginning of the season,\u201d the Ferrari boss told the F1 website. \u201cHe spent almost 10 years with McLaren and then 10 years with Mercedes \u2014 that\u2019s almost 20 years with Mercedes in the same environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a huge change for Lewis in terms of culture, in terms of people around him, in terms of software, in terms of car, in terms of every single topic was a big change perhaps that we underestimate this, Lewis and myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton had talked about the immense challenge at the beginning of the year, when he gave himself months, not weeks, to adjust.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m back at square one,\u201d he said in Melbourne. \u201cI\u2019m under no assumptions that it will be easy. It is not.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still learning this new car that\u2019s quite a lot different to what I\u2019ve driven for all my previous career in the sense of Mercedes power.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing into Ferrari power, it\u2019s something quite new \u2014 different vibration, different feel, different way of working.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole team works completely differently. I was just sitting looking at the race trace from last year, and it\u2019s upside down compared to the previous one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Supporting this theory is Hamilton\u2019s improving trajectory, as detailed above.<\/p>\n
So too is the man he replaced: Carlos Sainz.<\/p>\n
After a highly competitive campaign last year, Sainz has struggled for traction at Williams, where he\u2019s being comfortably shown up by Alex Albon \u2014 though bad luck has masked undeniably better progress, with the Spaniard a much closer match for the Thai than Hamilton is for Leclerc.<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton hasn\u2019t slipped seamlessly into his Ferrari. (Photo by Mark Thompson\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
REASON 2: A BAD RULE SET<\/b><\/p>\n
The second explanation is that Hamilton simply does not get along with the current generation of car.<\/p>\n
Hamilton\u2019s last genuinely competitive season was 2021, when he was controversially beaten to what would have been his eighth world championship.<\/p>\n
His downturn the following year coincided with Mercedes\u2019s own decline as it struggled to build a car for this rule set.<\/p>\n
But Hamilton\u2019s slow going at Ferrari suggests Mercedes wasn\u2019t his only problem.<\/p>\n
Because a ground-effect car generates most of its downforce via the floor, it must be configured to be very stiff and with as consistent and flat a ride height and attitude as possible.<\/p>\n
The current car doesn\u2019t dive down under brakes or sit back on acceleration.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s important because it means the front axle isn\u2019t loaded up as significantly as it used to be when a driver hits the brakes hard.<\/p>\n
Hamilton\u2019s driving style is built around his feel on the brakes. His trick \u2014 if it\u2019s useful to think about it in such terms \u2014 is to load up the front axle so that the rear can begin to rotate into the corner before he\u2019s released the brakes.<\/p>\n
But because the current car doesn\u2019t load up the front axle in the same way, it can\u2019t give him the same response, muting his advantage.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s worse for Hamilton is that Ferrari doesn\u2019t appear to have designed cars with this method in mind. It\u2019s built its cars around different drivers with different strengths.<\/p>\n
To effectively turn a Ferrari requires mastering engine braking, which influences the rear axle. Leclerc has learnt to play in this space by subtly overlapping the throttle and brakes, for example.<\/p>\n
That represents a significant reprogramming of decades of Hamilton\u2019s muscle memory.<\/p>\n
Supporting this theory is Hamilton\u2019s inconsistency \u2014 in some circumstances and in some conditions he can get the most from the car, but more often than not he\u2019s falling short.<\/p>\n
Hamilton wouldn\u2019t be the only driver to succumb to this set of rules.<\/p>\n
Daniel Ricciardo\u2019s career faded similarly after the Australian failed to transition his driving style to ground effect.<\/p>\n
Like Hamilton, he occasionally had good days when things clicked, but in general he was behind Norris in 2022 and Yuki Tsunoda in 2023\u201324.<\/p>\n
But neither he nor Ricciardo looked capable of taming this generation of car consistently. The highs were inevitably punctuated with inexplicable lows that would defy any sense of momentum.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time, every time,\u201d Hamilton lamented after qualifying 12th in Hungary just days after expressing optimism about his progress in Belgium.<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton is in the longest podium drought of his career.. (Photo by Christophe SIMON \/ AFP)Source: AFP<\/p>\n
REASON 3: THE SPORT HAS GOT AWAY FROM HIM<\/b><\/p>\n
If you subscribe to the idea that it\u2019s just this rule set, the good news is the chassis and engine regulations will be thrown into the bin at the end of the year. Dramatically new cars are in store for next season.<\/p>\n
But the Ricciardo parallel is also a cautionary tale.<\/p>\n
While the regulations are one part of his story, he also talked about his driving style fundamentally not gelling with the way McLaren built its cars. Traits crossed over between regulation cycles.<\/p>\n
Red Bull Racing subsequently revealed that it could see in Ricciardo\u2019s simulator data the after-effects of having had to contort his natural driving style around a car that didn\u2019t work for him.<\/p>\n
He was eventually able to unpick most of his problems, but by then it was too late. He wasn\u2019t able to prove he could get back to his best at Racing Bulls, and he was turfed late last year.<\/p>\n
The then 35-year-old wondered at the time whether the game had simply got away from him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was able to do some moments of greatness this year, but it was trickier to do it week in, week out,\u201d he told Sky Sports. \u201cMaybe that\u2019s [being] 35. Maybe the competition\u2019s getting better and better. Who knows.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes [races] felt a lot more effortless.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having celebrated his 40th birthday in January, age is a question that has dogged Hamilton throughout his recent struggles at both Mercedes and Ferrari.<\/p>\n
Hamilton\u2019s gloomy recent commentary has also raised the question of motivation \u2014 though team boss Vasseur insists the seven-time champion needs no incentive to perform.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t need to motivate him; he\u2019s frustrated but not demotivated,\u201d he said, per ESPN, insisting that the Briton\u2019s post-session pessimism should be read as an immediate heart-on-sleeve emotional reaction to disappointing results, not an insight into his long-term thinking.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s frustrated, not demotivated.\u201d (Photo by Giuseppe CACACE \/ AFP)Source: AFP<\/p>\n
All three reasons are at play to some extent, which in turn raises the stakes significantly for 2026.<\/p>\n
Hamilton\u2019s Ferrari switch was always about next year, when the team hopes is can re-establish itself as a leader with the help of the changing rules.<\/p>\n
This season, like his 2013 Mercedes switch, was always supposed to be preparatory. It was only the team\u2019s strong end to last season that dangerously inflated expectation of more from team and driver this year.<\/p>\n
But something else has changed too in the last eight months.<\/p>\n
While he had nothing to prove after leaving Mercedes with a swag of F1\u2019s biggest records, no-one expected his transition \u2014 for all the reasons above \u2014 to be this difficult.<\/p>\n
Suddenly there are questions in need of answers.<\/p>\n
Suddenly the stakes for 2026 have been raised.<\/p>\n
Nothing can unseat Hamilton from the table of Formula 1 greats. Nothing can invalidate everything he\u2019s achieved. His legacy is secure.<\/p>\n
But what don\u2019t we understand about the seven-time champion? Has his Maranello move incidentally identified some hitherto unknown weakness? Has he clung to F1 for too long? Has age caught up with the seven-time champion?<\/p>\n
Is there an eighth world title in him?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if he has a car underneath him that he has confidence in, that does what he wants, then yes,\u201d Mercedes boss Toto Wolff argued, per the F1 website.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he has a car that\u2019s not giving him the feedback that he wants \u2014 and that was the Mercedes of the past few years and that seems to be the Ferrari, and even worse \u2014 then not.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you ask me whether he has it. He definitely has it.\u201d<\/p>\n
But only Hamilton himself can settle the question in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s never been a more spectacular driver switch than Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari. The statistics don\u2019t lie. This…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[29621,6207,13328,521,186,22631,1789,23014,6872,5070,1395,120629,45207,120601,22589,29609,18904,120614,120619,24394,299,4199,120622,6319,120611,577,707,4200,47221,120608,22626,120612,22596,22598,120621,120613,120606,120604,120603,120633,120620,120631,2190,120605,120625,4291,74054,1464,119,59974,120623,120630,300,24993,22617,120634,120628,120609,120632,120624,120617,22620,22623,120615,120610,47230,120626,120616,47223,120602,36311,198,120627,79,47214,24989,120600,22624,45205,16,15,25002,22599,22636,120607,17669,120618,20873],"class_list":{"0":"post-337461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-agence-france-presse","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","11":"tag-asia","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","14":"tag-belgium","15":"tag-budapest","16":"tag-carlos-sainz","17":"tag-charles-leclerc","18":"tag-china","19":"tag-christophe-simon","20":"tag-clive-rose","21":"tag-disappointing-results","22":"tag-driving-style","23":"tag-eastern-asia","24":"tag-eastern-europe","25":"tag-engine-braking","26":"tag-engine-regulations","27":"tag-espn-inc","28":"tag-europe","29":"tag-f1","30":"tag-fast-one-lap-driver","31":"tag-fernando-alonso","32":"tag-final-chicane","33":"tag-florida","34":"tag-formula-1","35":"tag-formula1","36":"tag-frederic-vasseur","37":"tag-front-axle","38":"tag-getty-images-inc","39":"tag-god-knows-how-many-seasons","40":"tag-grand-prix","41":"tag-grand-prix-podium","42":"tag-grand-prix-qualifying","43":"tag-grand-prix-team","44":"tag-greg-baker","45":"tag-ground-effect-car","46":"tag-ground-effect-era","47":"tag-ground-effect-regulations","48":"tag-headline-results","49":"tag-horizontal-axis","50":"tag-hungary","51":"tag-immense-challenge","52":"tag-improbable-pole-position","53":"tag-jack-doohan","54":"tag-mark-thompson","55":"tag-melbourne","56":"tag-miami","57":"tag-mid-season-break","58":"tag-muscle-memory","59":"tag-natural-driving","60":"tag-north-america","61":"tag-northern-america","62":"tag-oceania","63":"tag-parc-ferme","64":"tag-podium-drought","65":"tag-positive-trend","66":"tag-post-session-pessimism","67":"tag-prix-podium-trophy","68":"tag-qualifying-results","69":"tag-race-differential","70":"tag-race-result","71":"tag-real-battle","72":"tag-regulation-cycles","73":"tag-ride-height","74":"tag-rule-set","75":"tag-season-statistics","76":"tag-seven-time-champion","77":"tag-simulator-data","78":"tag-single-topic","79":"tag-sky-sports","80":"tag-spectacular-driver","81":"tag-sports","82":"tag-team-hopes","83":"tag-team-principal","84":"tag-team-works","85":"tag-time-differential","86":"tag-trend-line","87":"tag-uk","88":"tag-united-kingdom","89":"tag-united-states-of-america","90":"tag-victoria","91":"tag-vital-statistics","92":"tag-well-earnt-reputation","93":"tag-western-europe","94":"tag-work-perspective","95":"tag-world-championship"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}