Did Ferrari make a mistake when they signed Lewis Hamilton?

When Lewis Hamilton first announced that he was moving to Ferrari in 2025, there was both shock and excitement at the same time. On one side, we had the 7x F1 champion leaving a team he was a part of for more than a decade, and on the other, we were looking at a partnership between the most successful driver in history and the most successful team.

14 races into the season, it's safe to say that the partnership has not gotten off to the best start. Except for the sprint pole and win in China, there have been that many high points that one can look at.

While the Ferrari side of the partnership has faltered when it comes to giving the drivers a title-contending car, Lewis Hamilton's numbers have not been as good. With half a season gone in what has been the start of this iconic partnership, could there be a case where the team has made a mistake in hiring the 7x champion?

To analyze this, let's take a look at what the expectations were when Ferrari signed the driver and what the reality has been once he's been there.

Evaluating the Lewis Hamilton-Ferrari marriage

What were the expectations?

A driver that was as good as, if not better than, Charles Leclerc

The moment at which Lewis Hamilton was signed by Ferrari, the team lineup was Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. Leclerc was the leader, while Sainz was the able deputy. In essence, Hamilton was going to replace the Spaniard.

When Ferrari signed Hamilton, they signed a driver who was going to be a bigger benchmark for Charles Leclerc than Carlos Sainz. Not only that, when you sign a 7-time champion, you expect them to at least be as good as, if not better than, your current team leader. If the team wanted a support cast, why would it even bother to break the bank with him?

A boost in terms of best practices

What Lewis Hamilton brings is not only oodles of talent for driving an F1 car, but also experience in winning. Being the youngest world champion when he won the title and then being a part of the longest dominant reign in F1 history with Mercedes, Hamilton is well aware of what the best practices are that teams need to follow to win in F1.

When he was moving to a team that had not won even once since he won his first title, he was going to be the person who was going to provide valuable insight to the team that not many others could.

A positive PR of having the most successful driver/team coming together

It cannot be ignored that Lewis Hamilton joining Ferrari is the combination of the most successful driver with the most successful team in F1. When the partnership was official, one of the things that the squad would have been looking forward to was the PR benefit that would be there when on-track success is achieved.

He takes over the leadership role

Most importantly, it is clear as day that Ferrari went for Lewis Hamilton and broke the bank for him because the team did not believe that it could win the title with Charles Leclerc as the leader. Hence, when Hamilton came over, the anticipation would have been that he would slowly take over Ferrari as the team leader and provide the right type of guidance.

What has happened?

Lewis Hamilton has struggled to keep up with Charles Leclerc

Well, the reality has been quite different. While expecting Lewis Hamilton to jump in straight away and start performing at the level of Charles Leclerc was preposterous, one could say that the driver would at the very least have been expected to be competitive against Leclerc.

It was completely acceptable for Lewis Hamilton to take time to get used to the car, but soon after, he should have been closer to his teammate.

That has not happened, as in the first 14 races, we can only point to Silverstone as one race where Lewis Hamilton was the better driver of the two. It's been one-way traffic at the very least.

We're yet to see a boost in best practices

This is arguably something that takes time, as these are primarily cultural and structural changes that could be brought in. These things take time, and it would take a while before whatever changes Hamilton has asked for are implemented and start having an effect.

The PR has been anything but positive

Next up, if we talk about PR, it has been anything but positive. It's either the driver experimenting with setups, or trying to find the right balance, or adapting to the car, or, as recently as the last race before summer break, calling on Ferrari to replace him.

To have PR wins, you need to have some things going your way during the season in terms of results. While the sprint win is not meaningless per se, many drivers don't necessarily care about them either. Every great success for the PR machinery has its roots in what the driver does on track, and unfortunately, he hasn't done much.

Lewis Hamilton has struggled to be the leader Ferrari would have wanted

Arguably, a damning indictment of Lewis Hamilton's stint at Ferrari has been the fact that he is not yet the well-established leader of the unit. To command leadership and respect, a driver needs to first put on a great performance on track, and if Charles Leclerc is the one who continues to shine as the Ferrari driver while Hamilton trails, there's no way that we could look at the driver who is underperforming as a leader.

Most importantly, Lewis Hamilton knows this. He knows that he has to take over first on the track and then command the respect off it. Which was precisely why the driver essentially lashed out at himself in Hungary.

Conclusion

One of the easiest ways to judge if a move has worked or not is to look at what the expectation was from the move and what it yielded in reality. Ferrari expected a driver who could take over as the leader, be as good as or better than Charles Leclerc, and provide valuable insights that help the team grow.

For the most part, Lewis Hamilton hasn't delivered much in any of those metrics. The question, however, is how long a rope is Ferrari willing to give the 7x F1 champion?

If the team makes the call today, then yes, this has been a failure. If, however, Ferrari makes a call in 2026 and by that time Lewis Hamilton is more or less on Charles Leclerc's level and has taken over the leadership of the team, then the decision is going to be the right one. In essence, maybe 14 races are too early to make a judgment, but the signs are not positive.