Lewis Hamilton is closing in on an unwanted Kimi Raikkonen record during his debut Ferrari season

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Lewis Hamilton joined Ferrari with the dream of securing a record eighth drivers’ championship with the team.

However, with seven race weekends to go, and 199 points still available, Lewis Hamilton can no longer catch drivers’ championship leader, Oscar Piastri.

His Ferrari teammate, Charles Leclerc, is technically still in the running, although based on the team’s results this season, that won’t last for much longer.

Hamilton recently broke an unwanted Ferrari record, where he became the driver with the most Grand Prix starts for F1’s most storied team without finishing on the podium.

The 40-year-old’s victory in the Sprint Race in China and third-place finish in the Sprint event in Miami don’t officially count towards these records.

Hamilton’s recent radio message will be a worry for Ferrari, as both he and Leclerc have struggled with the SF-25 this year.

It means that Hamilton is closing in on matching a feat last achieved by Kimi Raikkonen that he won’t want to look back on.

The Finnish driver is still the last person to win a championship for Ferrari, but his 2014 campaign was disappointing to say the least.

READ MORE: Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton’s life outside F1 from net worth to family

How Kimi Raikkonen failed to score a podium for Ferrari during the 2014 Formula 1 season

In 2014, Raikkonen returned to Ferrari after his three-year spell between 2007 and 2009, following a hiatus from Formula 1 and two years racing for Lotus.

The Iceman took part in 19 races that season, setting one fastest lap but finishing 12th in the championship with 55 points and a best finish of fourth at the Belgian Grand Prix.

His teammate, Fernando Alonso, scored 161 points, but only finished on the podium twice.

Speaking about his tricky campaign to Autosport, Raikkonen explained: “Obviously, with the new team, I expected it to be difficult because of how things work.

“If the car doesn’t suit you, and [I’ve had] similar situations before with Ferrari, it’s not easy to change things when certain things are not right for you.

“Over the year, they have had a clear plan for what we have to improve to get back where Ferrari should be.

“It’s unfortunate we’ve had this kind of year because it’s not good for me, Ferrari or fans of Ferrari, but that’s part of the game.

“It’s not the first time I’ve had difficulties – you just have to take the good out of them and make sure it does not happen for the future.”

Raikkonen also spoke to the official F1 website in 2014 about his frustrating campaign and said: “Obviously – and everybody can see this – it hasn’t been an all too good season for me – and not for the team either. As Ferrari, you expect to be at the front – and it hasn’t been the case. It’s been hard – but that’s the way it sometimes goes.”

When he was asked if it still felt good to say he was the team’s most recent champion, he replied: “Yes, sure. It is better [to have] one here than five with another team. It is the right place to be, and even if 2014 was not so good, it is still Ferrari!”

While nearly a decade later, Ferrari would hope that Raikkonen’s statement would no longer be true, it will give Hamilton hope that next year he can end that streak and justify his decision to join the team.

READ MORE: Why Kimi Raikkonen was ‘very happy’ when he discovered Ferrari were cancelling his contract early

Who are the other most recent drivers to fail to score a podium for Ferrari in a full Formula 1 season?

If Hamilton doesn’t finish on the podium at any of the next seven Grand Prix, he’ll become the fifth driver to fail to do so in a full season for Ferrari since 1980.

Hamilton can take solace from the fact that if he does join this exclusive group, Raikkonen was back on the podium with Ferrari after just four races the following year.

The previous driver to achieve this feat was Felipe Massa in 2011, nearly 20 years after Ivan Capelli’s tricky 1992 campaign.

Massa was given two more years by the Scuderia before joining Williams, but Capelli wasn’t so lucky.

The Italian was dropped at the end of the year, and despite Jordan giving him another chance, he retired from Formula 1 two races later after failing to qualify in Brazil.

Didier Pironi also failed to register a podium in 1981, but stayed at Ferrari the following year, only to be seriously injured at the German Grand Prix with five rounds to go when he would have almost certainly won the championship.

Hamilton is dealing with issues at Ferrari now that he encountered at Mercedes, and the grid has converged so much that teams need to be almost perfect to challenge for victories.

But Ferrari have shown in the past that they’ll stick by drivers through tough periods, and Hamilton’s track record suggests he’ll be well worth putting faith in.