For Lewis Hamilton to keep up he needs a car that's significantly faster than others, feels former Ferrari man

Rene Arnoux, the former Ferrari driver, has a suggestion for Lewis Hamilton, who's struggling with Ferrari coming into 2025. As per Arnoux, Hamilton, who is 40 years old, would need a car "significantly" faster than his rivals to keep up at this age.

Hamilton arrived from Mercedes at the end of last season. He parted ways with a team where he won six of his seven F1 titles, and enjoyed enormous success from 2014 to 2021. However, things changed once the ground effect era came into place in 2022.

The seven-time world champion failed to make amends for three years at Mercedes, where he had an inferior car compared to the post-Hybrid era. However, things did not change for him drastically after coming to Ferrari, as Hamilton kept struggling with performance.

The Prancing Horse finished the 2024 season as runner-up and was almost similar to McLaren in terms of performance. However, things changed in 2025 as the SF-25s are no match for the Papaya MCL39s. As a result, much like Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton is also struggling.

Arnoux, the French former racing driver, who drove for Ferrari for two years from 1983 to 1984, knows the solution to Hamilton's struggle. Speaking to the Italian media outlet, La Gazzetta dello Sport, here's what he said on Hamilton:

"Hamilton tries hard, but he has the handicap of age. At 40, it's not easy to put up with the athletic effort that these cars require. To keep up he should have a car that is significantly faster than the others and that is not the case."

What Rene Arnoux said is technically true given the SF-25 has inferior speed when it comes to qualifying, and this is the reason why Leclerc and Hamilton are barely on pole or the front row. On top of that, their race pace is not extraordinary to give them an added advantage in the race.

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Lewis Hamilton failed to decode why Ferrari is underperforming

Following the conclusion of the 2025 Miami GP, Lewis Hamilton addressed the pace issue of Ferrari and stated that something held back the car, but he did not know the reason. Speaking to the media, here's the British driver said:

Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain driving the (44) Scuderia Ferrari SF-25 on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Canada at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve - Source: Getty

“I think this car really does have performance. But something's holding us back at the moment. We've lost performance since China [round two], and it's there, it's just we can't use it. Until we get a fix for that, then this is where we are. But in the meantime, we can work on all the other stuff.” (via Autosport)

Currently, Lewis Hamilton is in P6 in the Drivers' Championship with 79 points after 10 races and two Sprints. Compared to him, his teammate, Charles Leclerc, is in P5 with 104 points. Ferrari is in P3 in the Constructors' Championship with 183 points.