Lewis Hamilton’s 2025 Formula 1 season was marked by sharp contrasts and unfulfilled expectations. Although the seven-time world champion managed to secure his first Sprint race victory with the Maranello-based team, his overall campaign ended without a single Grand Prix podium finish. It was the first time in his long and decorated career that Lewis Hamilton completed a full season without standing on the podium on a Sunday.
His struggles were particularly evident over a single lap. The British driver openly found it difficult to fully adapt to Ferrari and the SF-25, and his qualifying form suffered as a result. In the final three rounds of the season, Hamilton was eliminated in Q1 on three consecutive occasions. The last time he experienced a similar run of early qualifying exits dated back to 2009, during his McLaren days, across the Monaco, Turkish and British Grand Prix weekends.
A demanding off-season ahead
Looking ahead to his second year with Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton has already hinted at an extensive off-season programme designed to address the issues that limited his competitiveness in 2025. As reported by Motorsport Week, the Briton explained his approach in clear terms: “I think we just need to analyse everything, what went well and which areas we can improve.”
Throughout the year, Lewis Hamilton has been heavily involved behind the scenes, contributing far beyond his driving duties. He even sent Ferrari a detailed dossier highlighting specific areas where he believed the team needed to improve. Speaking about his plans for the winter break, Lewis Hamilton revealed that he had already communicated clearly with the team about what he wanted to see addressed ahead of the new Formula 1 era, which will bring a complete overhaul of the technical regulations.
“I have highlighted, I mean, I know where everyone is. We will sit down with the team at the end of the year. I will analyse internally my own personal team away from the track and see what we can do more to make it more efficient in terms of timing, travel and all these things. Then I will do the same with the team,” Lewis Hamilton explained.
Early warnings and difficult choices
Lewis Hamilton had already hinted at Ferrari’s underlying difficulties just a few months after his arrival in Maranello. While the announcement of his move to Ferrari had generated enormous excitement among fans ahead of the 2025 season, those sky-high expectations were ultimately not met. What was meant to be a title-challenging year instead became one of the most complex and frustrating seasons in Ferrari’s Formula 1 history.
Internally, however, the Briton admitted that the team had already been “anticipating” a relative lack of outright speed compared to its main rivals. This awareness played a key role in Ferrari’s strategic decisions as the season unfolded.
Given the mounting difficulties, the decision to stop developing the SF-25 and shift focus fully to the following year was taken as early as April. While Hamilton described that call as “right”, it inevitably made life more difficult for both himself and his teammate Charles Leclerc as the season progressed.
“I didn’t know that at the end of the year we would be where we are, no. We had anticipated it, but naturally the situation looked worse. I was one of the people pushing Fred. It’s like we can’t fall behind the others in terms of development of the new car, because it’s a steep learning curve for all of us. So I supported it 100%,” Lewis Hamilton said.
“I think it was the right decision. Especially considering the situation we were in with the car, we weren’t fighting for the championship, but that simply meant it was harder to maintain performance, at least some of what we had at the start of the year.”
Focus on 2026 and the new era
With the 2026 season set to usher in a radically different technical landscape, Lewis Hamilton’s emphasis on analysis and preparation reflects both experience and long-term thinking. His determination to scrutinise every aspect of his own operation, as well as Ferrari’s wider structure, underlines a clear objective: to ensure that his second season in red coincides with a genuine step forward for the Scuderia in Formula 1’s next chapter.
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