(Or On His Last Legs?)
There are few transfers in the sports world that have shocked both hardcore fans and the general public: LeBron James’ move to the Lakers, Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid, or Wayne Gretzky leaving the Oilers after winning four consecutive Stanley Cups. That nonexclusive list gained another name on 1 February 2024 when it was announced that seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton would be joining Scuderia Ferrari for the 2025 season. I remember entering a catatonic state that day, vacillating between shock, excitement, and doubt about whether this was all just a dream. The thought of one of the greatest drivers of all time joining forces with F1’s most prestigious outfit always seemed beyond the realms of possibility.
Fast-forward a year, and that dream is slowly becoming reality. Hamilton’s first social media post as a Ferrari driver broke the Internet. Posing in front of the team’s Maranello factory, dressed in a Ferragamo three-piece suit, the British driver’s “aura” accumulated 5.5 million likes, becoming Ferrari’s most-liked Instagram post. A few days later, Hamilton got his first taste of a Ferrari Formula 1 car, clocking in thirty laps in the team’s 2023 car at the private Fiorano Circuit. Seeing Hamilton in Ferrari red with his iconic number forty-four on the front of the SF-23 should have felt just as exciting as it did almost a year ago. Yet, that joy was mixed with uncertainty.
If Hamilton were to become a record-breaking eight-time world champion with a team as esteemed as Ferrari, it would be the perfect fairy–tale ending to his career. What makes that prospect even more enticing is that Ferrari is in a position to offer him a title challenger. Last season, Ferrari finished second in the Constructors’ Championship, with five wins, twenty-two podiums, and four pole positions shared between Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. Despite a mid-season rough patch, Ferrari brought a competitive series of upgrades that helped the Italian outfit launch a late season charge for the Constructors against McLaren which went down to the last race in Abu Dhabi. Although Ferrari would lose out by only fourteen points, their strong 2024 campaign has already made them favourites for victory in 2025. A driver line–up of Hamilton and Leclerc pushes the odds further in the Scuderia’s favour.
Yet, the question remains of whether Hamilton still has it in him. Having turned forty years old in January, drivers of Hamilton’s age are the exception rather than the norm, and Hamilton’s form last season was far from bulletproof. While the 2024 Mercedes W15 was definitely not the class of the field, Hamilton struggled to match his teammate, particularly in qualifying. Hamilton finished the year with two wins and zero pole positions, with an average qualifying position of 8.83 across twenty-four races. In comparison, George Russell statistically had one of his best seasons, with two wins, four pole positions, and an average qualifying position of 5.59, having also outqualified his more senior teammate 19–5. While Hamilton has been more comparable to Russell in terms of race results, the seven-time champion finished off the year with several poor races.
In Austin, Hamilton spun out in the penultimate corner on lap three, beaching his car in the gravel trap while attempting to recover from a nineteenth place start. A rain-soaked São Paulo Grand Prix saw Hamilton barely hold on to a points finish after qualifying sixteenth. Although Hamilton would finish his time at Mercedes with an impressive fourth place finish in Abu Dhabi, which he achieved by pulling a daring overtake on his teammate in the final lap, he was only in that position because he qualified eighteenth. All these factors made 2024 statistically one of Hamilton’s worst seasons. In a sport where a driver is only as good as their last race, it has caused some fans to doubt whether a move to Ferrari will be enough to reignite Hamilton’s championship-winning spark that dominated the sport for most of the 2010s.
To add to the uncertainty of Hamilton and Ferrari fans, 2025 is set up to be one of the most competitive seasons in recent history. With most teams looking to get a head start on the new 2026 technical regulations, their 2025 cars will most likely be evolutions of their 2024 challengers. And with how competitive it got at the front of the field last season, there is no guarantee that Ferrari will find themselves on top, especially considering the talent that Hamilton will be up against. Although Red Bull had a tricky car last year, no one can count out Max Verstappen from winning his fifth consecutive driver’s title, and he is now backed by a young Liam Lawson, whose previous form suggests he could be the rear gunner that Sergio Pérez failed to be.
McLaren will also be looking to defend their Constructors’ crown. Although Lando Norris’ 2024 title challenge was by no means perfect, on paper, it was the British driver’s best campaign, capping it off with a dominant win in Abu Dhabi that single-handedly secured McLaren’s first Constructors’ Championship in 26 years. Norris will be looking to prove that he has what it takes to win his first driver’s championship. Norris’ teammate, Oscar Piastri, will also be in the championship hunt, having made a massive step following his stellar rookie season in 2023.
Hamilton’s old Mercedes team will also be in contention, with Russell looking to settle in as team leader and rookie teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli looking to meet the insane expectations placed on him as Lewis Hamilton’s replacement. If Ferrari delivers a championship-worthy car in 2025, Hamilton’s biggest rival will be on the other side of the garage. Leclerc is not only Ferrari’s current star talent but is regarded as one of the best qualifiers on the grid, racking up twenty-six pole positions in seven seasons, mostly in cars that had no business qualifying at the front. With Leclerc having ironed out his “win-it-or-bin-it” tendencies in 2024, Hamilton will have to worry about fending off his well–established teammate, let alone the other drivers around him, most of whom are over a decade his junior.
If there is one positive to bring into the 2025 season, Lewis Hamilton has made a career out of defying the odds. He will have had plenty of opportunities to get himself bedded into his new environment before the season begins. Having had two tests at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, one in the SF-23 and another in a modified version of last year’s SF-24, Hamilton will have the opportunity to drive the 2025 car during its shakedown at Fiorano on 19 February, followed by a day and a half in Bahrain during the official pre-season test on 26 to 28 February. Then, it is off to the races in Melbourne for the first race of the season from 14 to 16 March. Only then will we find out which version of Hamilton will rise to the challenge or fade further away from the champion we once knew.