Lewis Hamilton has already explained why he won’t care if he doesn’t win with Ferrari in 2025

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Lewis Hamilton’s first season with Ferrari in 2025 has not gone the way many would have expected, but that may not matter to the seven-time champion.

The hype for the 40-year-old’s move to Maranello was immense, with many tipping Hamilton to be the one to win Ferrari their first title since 2008. However, their winless run has continued in every sense of the word in 2025.

Ferrari have scored seven podiums this season, all courtesy of Charles Leclerc, while Hamilton has yet to finish on the podium for his new team. He had hoped that a fresh start would reinvigorate his career after a tough end to his tenure at Mercedes, but his struggles have followed him to Italy.

Ride height issues, crashes and operational errors are just a few things that have plagued Hamilton in 2025. His results even garnered strong criticism from Ferrari chairman John Elkann, who told his drivers to ‘talk less’ after they failed to finish in Brazil.

As it stands, with three races to go, Hamilton will match Kimi Raikkonen’s record for a Ferrari driver not scoring a podium in a season. Furthermore, 2025 will be the third season that he has not won a race, but his past comments suggest that this is not important to him.

Lewis Hamilton said he won’t be ‘whining’ about not winning a race in a season when he retires from F1

Speaking to Channel 4 during his Mercedes days back in 2022, at the height of his struggles with the new generation of cars, he explained that he would look back on his championships when he ended his career, not the fact that he had not won in a season.

Hamilton said he would not whine about not winning in every season, but would instead look back on what he had achieved and the people he worked with. It would hint that, even as underwhelming as his season has been, winning for Ferrari in 2025 is not that important to him.

Asked if he cares about not winning in a season, Hamilton replied: “No, not particularly, no. If this race wasn’t to happen or if even if this weekend doesn’t go particularly well, honestly, I’m just looking forward to seeing Monday.

“And I’ve had a pretty amazing 15 years. I’m really just genuinely living in gratitude. In 20 years’ time, I’m not going to be whining about whether or not I won a single race in every single year. I’ll be thinking of the championships.”

Asked if he would be in F1 for another 20 years, he replied: “No, definitely not. But I’ll be looking back and thinking just how fortunate I was to work with great people and the success we had, the trials and tribulations.

“Those are the things I’ll look back [on] and I’m definitely not going to be whining whether or not I’ve won one race in every season or being the youngest or all these different records.

“They really will have zero meaning to me. It’s more the journey. It’s more the times with the great people, the great friendships that I’ve made and the values that I’ve tried to stick to.”

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Will Lewis Hamilton win for Ferrari?

Hamilton says he is ‘living a nightmare’ at Ferrari as he cannot find performance from the SF-25, and he is seeing no improvement from the team’s operation. He has called for changes behind the scenes, but thus far, it has fallen on deaf ears.

With races in Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi still to go, there is an opportunity for Ferrari to claim a victory and achieve P2 in the constructors’ championship. But with the car’s performance, it is unlikely, and the team may know that too as they look ahead to 2026.

Next season is a complete unknown for all of the teams, but Hamilton will be desperate for Ferrari to build him a winning car. 2026 could be his last chance to fight for the eighth world championship that has eluded him since his heartbreak in 2021.

With his contract expiring in 2026 – he has the option to extend into 2027 – he is running out of time to claim victory and be competitive. Whether his car will give him the tools to do so is another question, with rumours suggesting that Ferrari could drop Hamilton mid-season if he does not improve.