![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/TR-57-25-COMPARISON-REAR-SUSPENSION-FERRARI-SF-25-png.jpg\")
<\/p>\nLewis Hamilton\u2019s recent suggestion that the 2025 Formula 1 season hasn\u2019t been as exciting as previous final years of regulations because of the budget cap is a curious claim.<\/p>\n
Hamilton said 2025 \u201cfeels quite a bit different because of the budget cap,” which was introduced in 2021, compared to other seasons that directly preceded major regulation changes like 2008 and 2013.\u00a0He reckons teams’ new financial limits have stymied the degree to which they can do parallel development problems and forced them to barely upgrade their 2025 cars, making this season less varied and exciting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember in 2008 when we [McLaren] were still able to bring upgrades in that year, we were still fighting, we were still developing the car right to the end, and obviously the next year’s car was a disaster, but they would have to do those two in tandem,\u201d Hamilton recalled in Baku.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then in 2013, again, I was switching [he’d joined Mercedes from McLaren for 2013], so it’s difficult to say so much in that section, but I would say this time it’s not been as exciting because we’ve moved over [design focus] so early, and so you then just stuck with what you have for the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it makes this season less exciting because you’re not getting developments, so just going to see out the rest of the year with what you have, but then next year will be an exciting one because there’ll be lots of upgrades throughout.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
So is Hamilton right?\u00a0<\/p>\n
The caveats<\/p>\n
Firstly it\u2019s important to remember the context of Hamilton\u2019s comments. He\u2019s laser-focused on Ferrari\u2019s efforts, and he hasn\u2019t seen the development progress he\u2019d have hoped.<\/p>\n
Ferrari has brought new parts – a new floor in Austria<\/a> at the end of June and new rear suspension<\/a> for Belgium a month later (pictured above) – but they haven\u2019t exactly lifted Ferrari up the pecking order.<\/p>\n There have been more podiums for Hamilton\u2019s team-mate Charles Leclerc, but it\u2019s remained around the same distance adrift of McLaren all season, alternating with Red Bull (and sometimes Mercedes) as its closest challenger depending on the track and how low Ferrari’s able to run its car around its well-documented ride height problem<\/a>.<\/p>\n So it\u2019s understandable why, personally, for Hamilton, it won\u2019t have felt as exciting as Ferrari\u2019s remained at a frustrating arm\u2019s length away from McLaren.<\/p>\n And with only minor upgrade tweaks for the rest of the year, that pecking order is highly unlikely to change over the last seven events, with Ferrari very much stuck making the most of the car it has right now.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hamilton is not necessarily talking about the F1 season as a whole being less exciting for a neutral point of view – why would he be interested in the progress Sauber or Aston Martin has made? So, from where he\u2019s sitting, being stuck in a car that\u2019s already been beaten to the constructors\u2019 title with seven rounds to spare, isn\u2019t the most enthralling challenge.<\/p>\n Especially when you compare it to the 2008 and 2013 seasons that Hamilton is comparing 2025 with\u2026<\/p>\n Do Hamilton’s 2008 and 2013 comparisons stack up?\u00a0<\/strong> Hamilton rightly points to 2008 as a year where F1\u2019s development race didn\u2019t let up, with his McLaren team bringing upgrades right up until the end of the year.<\/p>\n Hamilton\u2019s 2008 team-mate Heikki Kovalainen\u2019s chief mechanic Jonathan Brookes recalled \u201cyou would always injure yourself on the car because there were so many aero bits sticking out. Parts were constantly changing\u201d.<\/p>\n That was because McLaren was locked in a neck-and-neck title fight with Ferrari, with both teams continuing to bring upgrades to their cars despite the looming huge aerodynamic regulation overhaul for 2009 – something both, for somewhat related reasons, got badly wrong.\u00a0<\/p>\n And BMW Sauber and Robert Kubica famously removed themselves from the title fight, as BMW switched off the 2008 development taps soon after Kubica picked up his and the team\u2019s maiden win in Montreal – a decision Kubica still believes cost him a shot at the 2008 title, and didn’t exactly help him out for a 2009 season where he only stood on the podium once.<\/p>\n The clear difference with 2025 is not just the budget cap being in place, but the fact that McLaren and its drivers are having such a dominant ride to the two titles (even if Max Verstappen’s recent surge might be changing that a little).\u00a0That also makes it different to 2021 when title rivals Red Bull and Mercedes kept a high development rate with some cost to their 2022 projects – and that was done during the first year of the budget cap.<\/p>\n You\u2019d have to imagine things would be different if McLaren was facing big competition from Ferrari, Red Bull (earlier than Monza) or Mercedes, even with the looming 2026 regulations.<\/p>\n McLaren\u2019s been afforded the chance to switch focus to 2026 in good time and its rivals, clearly beaten since the start of the European season, have been able to do the same.<\/p>\n The 2013 comparison is perhaps a stronger one. Red Bull dominated the second half of that season. Securing both titles was something of a formality even before Sebastian Vettel\u2019s nine-race winning streak properly got going.\u00a0<\/p>\n The pecking order did change versus the start of the season, but that had more to do with the mid-season change in Pirelli compound following a blowout-strewn British Grand Prix and Red Bull\u2019s own strong in-season development.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mercedes was having a rollercoaster season too as it grappled to understand why it had a car that could take regular pole positions but melt its tyres in the races – only three out of eight poles were converted into race wins.\u00a0<\/p>\n So the Mercedes did change through 2013, but it also still firmly had one eye on 2014, arguably putting resources into the \u201814 car earlier than any other team<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n So teams looking ahead to next year\u2019s regulations and slowing down development in the final year of the regulations has always been a factor, not just in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n ‘I don’t think it’s a limitation’<\/p>\n In 2025 there have still been pecking order shifts, even if McLaren has more or less maintained its advantage throughout – pending confirmation in Singapore of how much of a step Red Bull has taken – and Ferrari has remained relatively static.\u00a0<\/p>\n The most obvious example of that is Red Bull’s recent turnaround, in part helped by its Italian GP upgrade package<\/a>.<\/p>\n On Sunday in Baku even Hamilton was in awe of the step Red Bull has made and said of his Ferrari’s circumstance: \u00a0“I would give anything for an upgrade, but obviously we don’t have that, because we’ve been focused on next year’s car.”<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/XPB_279118_HiRes.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Sebastian](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/XPB_611924_HiRes.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Top-4-teams----average-in-2025-1.png\")
<\/p>\n