Lewis Hamilton warned he could now follow the same path as Ferrari driver who had just a 12% win rate

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Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton could silence many of his critics this weekend.

The Italian Grand Prix is the most important race in the Formula 1 calendar for Ferrari.

The Tifosi have already been out in full force, with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton already witnessing their passion ahead of Sunday’s race at Monza.

Charles Leclerc has already established his legacy at Ferrari, winning at the circuit twice, including against the odds last season when he beat both McLaren drivers with a spectacular one-stop strategy.

Lewis Hamilton has also enjoyed plenty of success at Monza, having won five Italian Grand Prix in his career and set seven pole position laps across his career.

Hamilton has the record for the fastest lap in F1 history, set at Ferrari’s home circuit in 2020, although Covid rules meant the Tifosi weren’t present to see it.

The 40-year-old is still waiting for his first visit to the podium since moving to Ferrari, and Sunday would be a perfect opportunity to prove to the team’s fans he has what it takes to challenge for his eighth championship next season.

However, from the early signs of his time with the team, Alex Brundle is worried that Hamilton’s Ferrari career could end up emulating Sebastian Vettel’s time with the Scuderia.

READ MORE: Best moments of Lewis Hamilton’s F1 career including first pole, podium, win, title and more

Lewis Hamilton told his Ferrari career is ‘starting’ to emulate Sebastian Vettel’s

Brundle was speaking on The Fast and The Curious Podcast about Hamilton after his crash at Zandvoort, and he said: “His stint at Ferrari is starting to remind me a little bit of Sebastian Vettel’s stint at Ferrari, where you get a driver who, in a certain era of car, had this massively dominant phase.

“Hamilton then gets in, changes teams in a subtly different era of car. And it just requires a sequence of different inputs from him.

“And he’s scrambling around, trying to make his style of driving fit the car. And he’s been around long enough that we know what Lewis Hamilton’s style of driving is.

“He brakes really deep, he has great control of the rear axle of the car, and then he makes it work in the mid-corner and gets out. So, really an attacking style of driving.

“I’ve said it before in other podcasts, this era of cars doesn’t really reward it. But what you’re seeing is Hamilton being a good enough driver to make efforts to meet the style of driving that he needs to.

“But he’s at a stage of his career, and I think where he’s been driving with a certain muscle memory for so long that that’s proving now difficult, is my read on the situation.

“It’s unlikely to be the same thing, circuit to circuit, corner to corner. Leclerc has clearly just developed over his time with Ferrari, a muscle memory for the development of that car and how he wants to drive. So he’s doing a better job of managing it.”

READ MORE: Where is every driver from Lewis Hamilton’s first Formula 1 podium finish?

How good was Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari career after winning four championships with Red Bull?

Hamilton admitted he didn’t want his Ferrari career to end like Vettel’s at the Belgian Grand Prix, with the German unable to end the team’s long wait for a drivers’ championship.

However, the early signs suggest Hamilton might struggle to challenge Leclerc next year if Ferrari do have the strongest car on the grid after F1’s regulations change over the winter break.

Vettel joined Ferrari from Red Bull, and while he didn’t win a championship, he finished second to Hamilton in 2017 and 2018.

He won 14 of his 118 Grand Prix starts for Ferrari, giving him a win rate of 12%. For context, Vettel’s win rate at Red Bull was 33.6%, while Hamilton’s at Mercedes was 34.1%.

With Hamilton still searching for his first Ferrari podium, right now, he might take a 12% win rate by the time he leaves the team.

The 40-year-old’s ambitions are to do far better than that, and that requires a rapid improvement and a more competitive car from 2026 onwards.