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Lewis Hamilton's former rival Nick Heidfeld feels that there is a noticeable difference between how he was 5 to 10 years back and how he is now. The German was one of the drivers at BMW when Hamilton had made his debut with McLaren in 2007. Heidfeld was with the German outfit until 2009, before the brand made an exit from the sport.
Hamilton, on his part, made an impressive debut in 2007 and eventually won the title in 2008. After a long stint with McLaren, the British driver eventually left the team for Mercedes in 2013 and went on a dominant run.
By the end of 2020, Lewis Hamilton was a 7-time world champion and the most successful driver ever in the sport. We are, however, in 2025, and now Hamilton is at Ferrari in what is his first year with the team. Unfortunately, it has not been smooth sailing for the driver, as he's yet to convincingly beat teammate Charles Leclerc over a race weekend.
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Talking to F1-Insider, former F1 driver Nick Heidfeld felt that Lewis Hamilton can still pull off a brilliant weekend if the car suits him and everything works perfectly. However, he also pointed out that it is noticeable that the 7x champion is not the same as he was 5 to 10 years back. Pointing to a regression, he said:
"I think so. If the car suits him, he can still perform at his best. We saw that in China. But compared to Leclerc, he's currently lagging behind – especially in qualifying. And of course, even if some people don't like to hear it: He's not the youngest anymore. If you compare him to the Hamilton of five or ten years ago, you can see the differences."
Lewis Hamilton's struggles not the same as what Michael Schumacher had
Michael Schumacher also struggled to perform at a high level on his comeback to F1. The German was also 40 years of age, just like Lewis Hamilton is right now. Heidfeld, however, doesn't think that the struggles of the two legends are comparable. On the one hand, Schumacher was away from the sport for a while before he made a return. That has not been the case with Hamilton. He said (via the aforementioned source):
"Not quite. Michael was out for several years, while Lewis kept going. But it shows that after many years in the same environment, changing teams is difficult. Lewis was perfectly integrated at Mercedes – now he has to get used to a new car. And the older you get, the harder it is to make a fresh start like that."
The British driver has had a rough start to life at Ferrari but he's still only eight races into the season. There's still room for improvement and scope for Hamilton to find the sweet spot with more consistency as his experience grows with the team.
