Lewis Hamilton joining Ferrari sparked pandemonium in Maranello ahead of the 2025 F1 season, but bitter disappointment and even anger quickly replaced any high hopes.

Thousands of Tifosi lined the streets around Fiorano to watch Hamilton enjoy his first outing as a Ferrari driver this January. His move to Maranello represented the marriage of the most successful F1 driver of all time and the series’ most iconic brand when they were on the up.

Ferrari finished just 14 points behind McLaren in the 2024 constructors’ standings, in search of their first title since 2008. But the Scuderia would come to regret the major changes they made to their car through the winter, as the SF-25 was ultimately only the fourth-fastest car.

Charles Leclerc and Hamilton would only achieve fifth and sixth place in the 2025 F1 drivers’ championship with 242 and 156 points, while Lando Norris of McLaren won the title on 423. McLaren also retained the constructors’ title on 833 points, while Ferrari only ranked fourth.

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Lewis Hamilton’s first Ferrari season draws parallels to Michael Schumacher’s F1 comeback

Now, the conversation has turned to whether Hamilton could break his Ferrari contract and retire before trying the 2026 F1 regulations. And BBC Sport notes that ‘many’ people in the F1 paddock are wondering whether Hamilton’s plight is due to his age above anything else.

Hamilton will turn 41 years old on January 7 and while Aston Martin star Fernando Alonso is proving that he can still compete at 44, time could be up for the Briton. Alonso only failed to advance from Q1 twice during the 24 rounds in 2025, while Hamilton suffered four Q1 exits.

Other figures in F1’s paddock have even drawn parallels between Hamilton’s woe at Ferrari and the ‘unconvincing’ performances that Michael Schumacher produced after he returned in 2010. Mercedes brought Schumacher back after he had retired as a Ferrari driver in 2006.

Schumacher retired from F1 after finishing second to Alonso in the 2006 drivers’ standings, but Mercedes saw the seven-time champion as the ideal driver to guide their team in 2010. Yet Schumacher was second-best to Nico Rosberg during each of their three years together.

While Schumacher was fastest in qualifying at the 2012 Monaco GP and took P3 in the 2012 European GP, he retired from F1 again on a major low. The German most notably misjudged his braking point and ploughed into Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne in the 2012 Singapore GP.

Lewis Hamilton was left with ‘an unbearable amount of anger’ after his first year at Ferrari

Hamilton’s F1 Sprint win from pole in China during round 2/24 this March would prove to be a false dawn for what he would achieve as a Ferrari driver in 2025. The 40-year-old failed to earn a Grand Prix podium for the first time in his 19-year career and could not hide his pain.

Speaking after retiring from the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Hamilton admitted that he is living a “nightmare” at Ferrari. Qualifying last on pure pace for the first time ever in Las Vegas also saw Hamilton brand 2025 his “worst season ever”, after struggling in the worst of the rain.

A third straight Q1 exit for the first time in his F1 career in Abu Dhabi also left Hamilton with “an unbearable amount of anger and rage”. The record 104-time polesitter bowed out of Q1 in P16 at Yas Marina, having also only qualified P18 for the F1 Sprint and Grand Prix in Qatar.