The Scuderia Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton have now spent 14 common racing weekends together. One can say that none of them ran as the Scuderia and the Formula 1 record world champion had hoped for. A look at the numbers shows that the dream marriage has so far been a failed experiment on many levels. But there is not only bad news.
Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari, this is a big misunderstanding so far. Seeing the seven -fold champion in red is still something special. But the 40-year-old’s call has got deep scratches in the past few months. These numbers show the full extent of the dilemma.
After 14 races driven, Lewis Hamilton has just 109 points in the account. Less was last in 2009 at the same time of the season when he was still in the McLaren – and there were no sprint races in which you could get additional points.
14 races, zero podium places: this is the second worst record in Ferrari’s long formula 1 story. Only Louis Rosier had a longer dry spell in the 1950s. He had to wait 15 races in Ferrari until he made it onto the podium for the first time.
Incidentally, the Hamilton horror started at the first race of the season in Australia. There the Briton only became tenth and thus the second worst Ferrari debutant of the 21st century. Only Luca Badoer put his first race even deeper in the sand when he replaced Felipe Massa during the season and finished 17th in Valencia.
In total, Hamilton has been waiting for a podium for 16 Formula 1 races. The last time he was on the podium in Las Vegas in 2024. It is the longest dry spell on his career.
The direct comparison with Leclerc
What makes Lewis Hamilton look particularly old is the direct comparison with Charles Leclerc. The Monegasse usually gets significantly more out of the difficult to drive SF-25 than its teammate.
In the head-to-head, Leclerc has its nose in the races (except for China) with 11: 2. In qualifying, the Monegasse leads 10: 4. In this way, Hamilton was not even dominated by his career in 2024 when he lost the racing duel against George Russell with 9:15 and the qualifying duel with 5:19.
Hamilton’s gap to Leclerc per round in qualifying is also blatant. On average, according to “The Race” calculations, he loses 0.184 seconds. In the median, its gap is even 0.218 seconds per round. For comparison: With McLaren, these distances between Piatri and Norris are only 0.150 and 0.035 seconds.
These values alone confirm that Hamilton simply gets out of the SF-25 less than Leclerc. Due to its better starting positions, the Monegasse therefore also has easier game in the races. Here he ends up on average around two places ahead than the Brit.
What Hamilton and Ferrari still hope
As devastating as a look at the numbers for Hamilton and Ferrari is: there are also positive signals. The fact that the Brit is still one of the most constant drivers in the field is not to go away. Until Spa, he was the only pilot in the field next to Piatri who drove into the points in every race. That speaks for him – and for the reliability of the SF -25.
Also positive: the trend is (slowly) in the right direction. In Barcelona, Montreal, Spielberg and Silverstone, Hamilton was at eye level in qualifying, three times even faster than Leclerc. He also kept with the Monegassen in Spa, but was unlucky that his lap time was canceled.
However, this good impression was overshadowed by the Hungarian weekend, where he was missing in qualifying 0.015 seconds for moving into Q3 and he was first opened in the race for the first time since Imola 2022. Hamilton then ranked relentlessly with himself, which made it easier to cut it on from the outside.
The situation that this cannot be discussed is undoubtedly serious, but maybe not as hopeless as it is currently being drawn.