Ecclestone’s scathing ’embarrassing’ verdict on Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari

The chorus of voices claiming it is time Lewis Hamilton retired has continued, with Bernie Ecclestone again offering his opinion.

Hamilton’s switch to Ferrari this year has not gone as smoothly as hoped, with results that have fallen short of expectations in a season where Charles Leclerc has overshadowed his stablemate.

Bernie Ecclestone’s blunt appraisal of Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari

Hamilton’s switch from Mercedes to Ferrari for the F1 2025 campaign was seen as a last great effort to net an eighth world championship.

The oldest team in the world championship, Ferrari is motorsport’s most famous name. It was also the operation with which Michael Schumacher won five of his seven titles.

Hamilton is not the first world champion to have been tempted to Maranello in pursuit of greatness, following in the well-trodden footsteps of Alain Prost, Fernando Alonso, and Sebastian Vettel.

Hamilton’s arrival coincided with a strong F1 2024 campaign, which saw the Scuderia finish a close second to McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship. That raised hopes and the expectation that it was on the cusp of greatness once more.

That has not proved the case this season. Of the leading four teams, it is the only one without a race win; second place to Lando Norris in Monaco stands as the shining light thus far.

As Ferrari has battled (comparatively, it remains second in the Constructors’ Championship), Hamilton has fought his own demons. In Hungary, he was morose. His comments gave rise to concerns that he may not return after the F1 summer break.

While he has snapped out of that funk following the summer break, his results have not improved. The sport’s most successful driver stands a real chance of ending the season without a podium for the first time in his F1 career.

The whole saga has prompted intense criticism of both the team and Hamilton himself, with former F1-supremo Bernie Ecclestone previously suggesting the 40-year-old offer to step aside as the relationship fails to deliver.

Speaking with Germany’s sport.de, the 94-year-old has reaffirmed that position, though has cast a questioning light on Ferrari.

“The most embarrassing thing, in my opinion, for Lewis and Ferrari is that they thought he could do all the things that were necessary,” he said.

“You must be disappointed that what was supposed to be delivered was not delivered.”

However, the billionaire remains steadfast in his opinion that, after 19 seasons in Formula 1, it’s time for Hamilton to call it a day.

“He should stop,” Ecclestone opined.

“The danger that – if he continues for another year or a year and a half and hasn’t gotten better by then – people will forget him and his achievements.”

Hamilton burst onto the F1 scene in 2007 with McLaren, and quickly proved a match for two-time world champion Fernando Alonso.

The Spaniard remains on the grid with Aston Martin as F1’s elder statesman, with Hamilton next in line.

Over the intervening years, Hamilton has competed in 372 races, won 105 of them, and started on pole 104 times. He’s also amassed seven world titles and finished second on three occasions.

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Equally as impressive as his F1 record has been his efforts off track with initiatives designed to help those less fortunate than himself. He has taken a public stand on diversity, racism, and environment and animal rights.

He’s regularly used his money and platform for philanthropic causes. In 2008, he created the Lewis Hamilton Foundation, which awards grants to an array of charities.

Most recently, he’s entered Hollywood. Through his Dawn Apollo Films, he helped produce the F1 movie and has stated that there are other projects he’s now evaluating.

It is those efforts, Ecclestone suggested, that are also playing a contributing role in Hamilton’s current plight.

“You’re getting tired, and Formula 1 is no longer the only thing in his life,” he said.

“I think he’s lost his focus. Twenty years is a long time, and we now have a lot of young drivers in F1.”

Hamilton remains under contract through to at least the end of next year with Ferrari.

It will see him in the frame as sweeping new regulations come into play, doing away with the finicky ground effect concept of the current era in favour of a return to flat bottomed cars, increased electrical energy, and moveable aerodynamics.

Such a significant rule change promises to shake-up the pecking order, with teams already investing heavily on their F1 2026 projects.

For Ferrari, the outcome of those efforts will dictate how the final chapter of Hamilton’s F1 career will be written.

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