Lewis Hamilton’s difficult first season at Ferrari mirrors Alain Prost’s wrestle
Lewis Hamilton is raring to maneuver on from his first season with Ferrari, which is extensively considered one of the crucial troublesome campaigns in his 19-year Components 1 profession. After ending seventh in his closing season with Mercedes in 2024 – his lowest championship place to this point – the seven-time world champion anticipated a contemporary begin with Ferrari in 2025. As a substitute, he endured a season with no single podium end for the primary time in his profession.
Ferrari halted growth on the SF-25 early to prioritise the 2026 F1 rules. Whereas the workforce did introduce some upgrades in 2025, they had been inadequate to assist Hamilton adapt to a difficult automotive. Adaptation points proved to be a significant factor in his struggles, because the 40-year-old discovered it troublesome to combine absolutely with the workforce and extract most efficiency. Hamilton disagreed with the 2025 growth technique, pushing for extra upgrades that had been in the end shelved in favour of the 2026 automotive.
In the meantime, teammate Charles Leclerc managed seven podiums in 2025, highlighting the distinction in adaptation and efficiency between Ferrari’s drivers. Questions arose over Lewis Hamilton’s outcomes, with pundits equivalent to Tom Coronel suggesting that age might have restricted his capability to compete on the very high, even when he had remained at Mercedes.
Hamilton underestimated the cultural shift at Ferrari, simply as Alain Prost did
Transitioning from Mercedes to Ferrari was at all times going to be a major problem for Lewis Hamilton. He confronted a brand new automotive, a brand new workforce, a brand new surroundings, a brand new race engineer, and even a brand new language to navigate – a stark distinction to his 12 years at Brackley. Components 1 analyst Karun Chandhok believes the Briton underestimated simply how massive the cultural shift at Ferrari can be, evaluating it to the difficulties skilled by four-time world champion Alain Prost when he joined the Scuderia from McLaren.
Karun Chandhok defined on The F1 Present that Prost had at all times felt most comfy with British groups, profitable all of his championships in that surroundings. Transferring to Ferrari, he struggled with the workforce’s distinctive tradition, a problem Hamilton is now dealing with. The F1 commentator and analyst added that the distinction in workforce communication was significantly placing. He described how Hamilton’s race radio messages usually didn’t convey his intentions clearly to the Ferrari engineers, a scenario that hardly ever occurred throughout his time at Mercedes.
“The connection constructed at Mercedes was extremely sturdy over time,” Karun Chandhok famous. “At Ferrari, there’s nonetheless loads of miscommunications. Listening to Lewis on the radio, it’s clear that he is aware of what he’s pondering, however the workforce doesn’t at all times perceive him. That cultural transition has been an actual problem.”
Why Hamilton struggled in 2025
Many anticipated Lewis Hamilton to ship Ferrari’s first drivers’ championship since Kimi Raikkonen in 2007, however the season was a nightmare. He completed simply six factors forward of rookie Kimi Antonelli, who changed him at Mercedes. Ferrari’s 2025 automotive, mixed with operational missteps, restricted the workforce’s competitiveness and hampered Hamilton’s capability to carry out.
Karun Chandhok highlighted points with Hamilton’s communication with race engineer Riccardo Adami, noting that the pair usually appeared out of sync, additional complicating the driving force’s adaptation. Former world champion Damon Hill believes Hamilton overextended himself with promotional duties and behind-the-scenes efforts to enhance the workforce, contributing to the demanding season. Christian Danner argued that Hamilton misjudged his personal ‘immortality’ at Mercedes and assumed he might impose related modifications at Ferrari, a method that didn’t yield outcomes.
Traditionally, even drivers like Alain Prost, Fernando Alonso, and Sebastian Vettel struggled to reshape Ferrari’s philosophy to match that of British groups accustomed to success. Lewis Hamilton now faces the identical problem, with the Scuderia’s distinct tradition and operations requiring a interval of adaptation earlier than he can extract peak efficiency in his second season.
Dec 21, 2025
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