Max Verstappen has implied that Ferrari made a mistake by signing Lewis Hamilton, a view that is hard to disagree with. The Scuderia spent years trying to convince the Brit to leave Mercedes, finally succeeding over the winter of 2023-24. Hamilton told Toto Wolff he was leaving at the end of the year and, in early 2025, made headlines by arriving at Ferrari's factory in a long black overcoat in front of a red Ferrari F40.
Mixed Results on Track
Hamilton's on-track record for the Scuderia has not matched that impact. This second season has been better than the first, but that is not saying much given how little there was to report from his initial 12 months with the team. This year threatened to be special as the first half of the season progressed. Ferrari made a decent start and felt they had the best car on the grid, and they were right. The engine left them unable to compete with Mercedes at times, but the baseline was strong.
Hamilton finally got his first Sunday victory in red at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, while team-mate Charles Leclerc won at Silverstone a few weeks later. It looked as though Ferrari were on the verge of a breakthrough.
Operational Fragility and Driver Conflict
However, they have failed to kick on. Engine upgrades have not had the desired effect, leaving that as their big weakness, along with continuous operational fragility: an ongoing stream of strategy blunders and communication failures. Then there is the other problem, the one that was always going to come to the fore once Ferrari were in a position to win races. Hamilton and Leclerc get along, and neither was going to jeopardise that when there was nothing at stake. Add the opportunity for glory, and everything changes.
So it proved in Mexico City earlier this month. Hamilton was on pole for the first time as a Ferrari driver, with Leclerc third on the grid and up to second by the first corner. Ferrari were first and second on a circuit where overtaking is difficult, so only an implosion was going to deny them the win. The implosion came: Leclerc and Hamilton fought too hard for the lead, the former went off track and got a penalty, and Verstappen took full advantage, getting between the two Ferraris and inheriting the lead when Leclerc served that punishment. He went on to win, while the Ferrari drivers pointed fingers at one another.
Long-Term Concerns
It has been resolved, for now, through private talks overseen by team principal Frederic Vasseur, but it will happen again. Leclerc has been at Ferrari for years, signed a new long-term contract earlier this year, and is the team's long-term future. Hamilton may be approaching his 42nd birthday, but he is still a seven-time world champion and will not accept sidekick status. Having two drivers who think they should be number one is hardly ever a good idea. Verstappen would never accept it at Red Bull and has said he would not have done it to Leclerc if he were in charge at Ferrari. "If I was a team principal, I'd never get two number one drivers, because then you get things like this," he said.
Signing Hamilton was a brilliant commercial move – Ferrari have made an enormous amount of money through a rise in their stock price and the sponsorships they have attracted by having F1's most successful driver ever on board. That is important to the team and the wider Ferrari company, but the real desire is to get back on top of the F1 world. The Scuderia is approaching 20 years since one of their drivers last became champion: Kimi Raikkonen in 2007. Even if they get their car and engine right for next year, Hamilton and Leclerc could still bring it all crashing down through their own personal desires.
