Lewis Hamilton told what will ‘never’ return as his Ferrari F1 struggles persist

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Lewis Hamilton is now staring down the barrel at registering the worst season of his 19-year Formula 1 career amid the Briton’s first campaign as a Ferrari driver in 2025.

The seven-time champion moved to Maranello on an initial two-year contract from the 2025 F1 season to try to kickstart his stuttering career. But the endless woes that Ferrari have thus far endured with the SF-25 have helped leave Hamilton with only 125 points over 18 rounds.

Hamilton had never scored fewer points through 18 rounds than the 125 he has earned thus far this year, to also only sit sixth in the F1 drivers’ championship standings, before he joined Ferrari. He is also yet to stand on a Grand Prix podium after the 10th round for the first time.

The 2025 F1 season is not the first campaign in which Hamilton is without a Grand Prix win, having failed to triumph with Mercedes during 2022 and 2023. But he at least reached nine and six rostrums through those campaigns, and now only has six rounds of 2025 remaining.

Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton will ‘never’ recapture his past success

Ferrari focusing on a rear suspension upgrade at the expense of aerodynamic updates early in the 2025 campaign proved to be an error, which continues to thwart Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. The SF-25 no longer improves with set-up tweaks since the update debuted at Spa.

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

The update was meant to unlock the SF-25’s potential, but Hamilton has not finished higher than P6 through the six rounds with it on his car. And Derek Daly doubts Hamilton will ever get back to the levels of his past success, given the extent of his plight since joining Ferrari.

Former Tyrrell and Williams F1 driver Daly has even doubled down on his belief that Ferrari made a “marketing decision” by signing Hamilton to replace Carlos Sainz. SportsPro named Hamilton as the 11th most-marketable athlete, and the most-marketable F1 driver, in 2024.

Daly told RacingNews365: “Hamilton is one of the greatest success stories F1 has ever seen. He is solely responsible for taking F1 to places they’ve never been – like the fashion world. He was the stature of a champion, unlike anybody that I remember ever.

“The way he carried himself, the way he dressed and how he drove. Those days are over. They’re never going to come back. There is a time in every athlete’s life where your instincts and reflexes are never as good as they were 15 years earlier.

“So, those days are gone for Ferrari. To bring Hamilton there was a marketing decision, I have to believe, not a pure racing decision.”

Two more Grands Prix without a podium will confirm Lewis Hamilton’s worst-ever F1 season

Hamilton won the F1 Sprint in China back in round two of the 24 due in the 2025 F1 season this March, having also secured pole for the dash at the Shanghai International Circuit. The Briton also took another Sprint podium with P3 in Miami, but has zero Grand Prix podiums.

The record 105-time Grand Prix winner has not finished higher than P4 in any of his first 18 feature races as a Ferrari driver, with his best results each P4 at Imola, the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone. Ferrari then debuted their rear suspension upgrade at Spa in round 13 this July.

Should Hamilton now fail to get on any Grand Prix podium in two of the final six races, then his first season at Ferrari will be confirmed as the worst year of his career – unless he claims a win. The 202-time podium finisher’s worst rostrum tallies are his five in 2009, ‘13 and ‘24.