How has Lewis Hamilton's first half season at Ferrari gone?

Ben McCarthy

How has Lewis Hamilton's first half season at Ferrari gone? image

07152025

One of the most surprising and surreal partnerships in the history of the sport had been sealed and is now in fruition. But such is the historical pedigree of both Lewis Hamilton and the Ferrari team, 2025 must be regarded as nothing other than a disappointment.

Though the scarlet red team are second in the constructors' championship, which is where they ended 2024, that is as far as the similarities go. They have not won a grand prix, nor have they scored a pole position (the only team from the big four not to do so), and are more than 200 points behind leaders McLaren.

It must also be noted that Ferrari being second in the championship is more thanks to their rivals' struggles than their own successes.

Mercedes and Red Bull are both behind them in the order, but only because of the smaller points tally of their second drivers: Kimi Antonelli has scored points in just one of the last six races, as the Mercedes driver grapples with bad luck and the rigours of being a rookie. Red Bull's second driver problem is well-documented. 

Leclerc and Hamilton, despite being fifth and sixth in the drivers' standings, have both consistently scored enough points for the Italian team to be where they are. But in Hamilton's case, such a points-scoring run has not yet yielded a podium finish, something unheard of in his illustrious career.

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Hamilton and Ferrari's false dawn

After converting sprint pole into a dominant sprint race victory at the season's second round, in China, there appeared to be a lot of potential ready to be realised.

However, just 24 hours later, the potential instantly declined. From the main Chinese Grand Prix, both Ferrari drivers were disqualified. 

While Leclerc's car was found to be underweight, Lewis Hamilton's result was dismissed as his car's underbody plank had excessive wear. Ferrari's reaction to this inevitably hindered their performance, as they had to raise the ride height of the car, to avoid falling foul of the same regulation in future races.

This is a problem as these generation of cars generate more downforce, and grip, when the floor of the car runs as close to the ground as possible. But in lifting it, as Ferrari had to, they lost speed. 

Other issues with the car have been its low fuel running, its need to lift and coast (which means backing off to look after elements of the car) and its narrow operating window (where performance is not consistent across different runs and even laps).

Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton won the sprint race at China; in his second race weekend for Ferrari

Hamilton has also struggled with these generation of cars (compared to previous iterations). Known for his aggressive braking approach, the 7-time-world-champion has struggled with understeer and under-rotation through slow speed corners and a nervous rear axle at high speed. 

Couple that with a fresh new way of working (Ferrari's methods and systems are inevitably different to that of Mercedes, who Hamilton drove for 12 seasons) and the Brit is not getting the most out of the car.

He is also taking time to getting used to the systems and people. Communication with his new race engineer, Riccardo Adami, is still a work in progress (given the frustrations and lack of understanding that have been heard on the team radio). 

Signs of promise

Hamilton equalled his best grand prix result of the season with a fourth place at Silverstone. This was the weekend in which Hamilton most comprehensively had the better of Leclerc. The Monegasque's shaky qualifying laps and misjudgement of  the changeable conditions played a part, but it was still a question of what could have been. 

He was outpaced by the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg at critical stages of the race, and he lost a lot of time as he struggled to bring his tyres up to temperature on his out lap from the pits. He also did not drive a mistake-free qualifying lap, which potentially denied him a place on the front row of the gird.

Therefore, if the British Grand Prix is to be considered one of Hamilton's better 2025 races (considering it was just the second time that he beat teammate Leclerc in a grand prix), it demonstrates how much improvement needs to be found if this partnership is to prosper.

Over time, a vintage Hamilton should be able to adjust to the Ferrari way (and even challenge it at points), understand his machinery better and start to improve his results. 2026 may also be the extra boost he needs, given his struggles with these particular ground effect cars.

But the signs of adjustment are already there. He has outqualified Leclerc in three of the last four races; which is something that he only did once in the first eight. Though his struggles, versus his younger teammate, are more pronounced over a race distance; he is steadily chipping away at what was once an enormous deficit.

He is also just 16 points behind Leclerc, which is not the disaster that it has felt like at points. 

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Ben McCarthy

Ben McCarthy is a freelance sports journalist, commentator and broadcaster. Having specialised his focus on football and Formula One, he has striven to share and celebrate the successes of both mainstream and local teams and athletes. Thanks to his work at the Colchester Gazette, Hospital Radio Chelmsford, BBC Essex and National League TV, he has established an appreciation for the modern-day rigours of sports journalism and broadcasting.