Did Lewis Hamilton join Ferrari too early?

By Ella Keene

Lewis Hamilton’s move from Mercedes to Ferrari broke the internet in February of 2024. After losing the 2021 championship, Lewis seemed eager to get back on the top step of the podium – but didn’t have the car to cooperate with his competitive nature. 

For many his move to Ferrari was exciting, such an iconic team taking on an iconic driver, what could go wrong, right?

However, last year wasn’t the dream in red everyone expected. The season had a handful of issues for Hamilton from race pace to strategy calls, he definitely had a learning curve with the team. But ironing out these issues before the new set of regulations could set Hamilton up for success this season. 

He obviously struggled last year, describing the season as ‘painful’ in only April . It wasn’t just moving to a new team that Hamilton found hard; he was often in a battle with the car itself. His teammate, Charles Leclerc, is a long time Ferrari driver and wasn’t having struggles to the same extent, consistently placing higher than Hamilton with seven podium finishes against Lewis’ zero.

Changes internally at Ferrari will impact Hamilton’s performance this year with his previous race engineer, Riccardo Adami, being replaced with Carlos Santi for 2026. Last year saw many heated interactions with Adami repeatedly being told to leave him to it by the 7-time world champion. Now putting his faith in Santi, Hamilton will be hoping for a better season.

After Sunday’s race in Australia Hamilton gave a positive interview to Sky Sports saying he had a lot of fun and is proud of the team for getting the car to where it is – matching his best feature race finish of the 2025 season. 

The learning curve of last year has set Hamilton and Ferrari up for success this year, despite their disappointing race results it allowed them to figure out how to succeed in these new regulations.