Jolyon Palmer shares whether Lewis Hamilton can ever be as good as Fernando Alonso at Ferrari

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Lewis Hamilton is determined to better the legacies of Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel. To do that, he’ll have to win a world championship.

Hamilton ‘refuses’ to miss out on a title like Alonso and Vettel. Both drivers finished as the runner-up twice during their time at Maranello.

All of their destinies are interlinked. Vettel, driving for Red Bull, denied Alonso in two of the all-time great title races in 2010 and 2012, while the German couldn’t topple Hamilton’s Mercedes dynasty in 2017 or 2018.

Combined, Alonso and Vettel won 25 races for Ferrari and scored 99 podiums. Hamilton has yet to crack the top three in a Grand Prix, and while his main goal in the final 10 races will be ending the drought, it’s clear that everything is riding on 2026.

Jolyon Palmer says Lewis Hamilton can still reach Fernando Alonso’s level at Ferrari

Alonso nearly won the championship as a Ferrari debutant, missing out to Vettel by just four points. He won the season opener in Bahrain and added further victories in Germany, Italy, Singapore and South Korea.

The Spaniard won both of his F1 titles with former team Renault but was immediately competitive at Ferrari. Likewise, Red Bull legend Vettel stood on the top step in just his second start (the 2015 Malaysian GP) and was the closest challenger to the dominant Mercedes cars.

Hamilton’s partnership with the Silver Arrows was the most successful in F1 history, and there’s now an acknowledgement that both parties underestimated the scale of the transition. But speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, Jolyon Palmer predicted that he could still be as good as Alonso and Vettel at Maranello.

“This year, it’s obviously been tumultuous, moving over to Italy, racing for Ferrari. But so many drivers have done it successfully in the past. It’s not unprecedented for drivers to go from one working relationship and be successful at Ferrari.

“Alonso didn’t win a championship, Vettel didn’t win a championship, they were still very good Ferrari drivers. I think that’s where Hamilton can get to.”

Jolyon Palmer just gave Lewis Hamilton the perfect advice before Dutch Grand Prix

Hamilton entered a spiral at the Hungarian GP just before the summer break, suggesting that Ferrari should replace him because he’s ‘useless’. But Palmer urged him to recognise the fine margins.

The seven-time world champion was only two hundredths off the time he needed to reach Q3 in Hungary. The elimination spoiled his weekend, while Charles Leclerc took pole as the Ferrari suddenly came alive.

When he returns to action at Zandvoort, Palmer has urged Hamilton not to seek the ‘magic’, because that could lead to mistakes. A ‘solid’ weekend should help him recover confidence and motivation.

“I don’t know how the inner sanctum of Lewis Hamilton works, but he seemed to be spiralling into doom at the end of that first half of the season,” he said.

“Small things are making a massive difference, and the outcome of running around trying to get one solitary point in Budapest could have been a podium battle in Hungary had he managed to just put in [a better qualifying lap].

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“It’s [about] keeping the motivation at the moment for Hamilton because he is getting on, he is going to be frustrated at this performance, and on paper it looks so bad for him, but I still believe he has a huge amount of talent in there.

“I think he just needs to get a roll of solid races, don’t necessarily look for the magic in the first one back, just get back to solid, Q3 appearances, get into a position of fighting with the Mercedes and the Red Bulls and get that confidence back.”