Ferrari’s bold new prediction for Lewis Hamilton as he faces unwanted first

Lewis Hamilton will feature on the podium before the F1 2025 season is over. That’s the bold prediction by his Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur as the Briton’s happiness returned at Monza.

In his previous 18 seasons in Formula 1 before joining Ferrari, Hamilton has never once gone without at least one podium result. In fact, he’s never had less than five.

Will Lewis Hamilton feature on the podium in F1 2025?

Vasseur is convinced Hamilton’s first season with Ferrari will not put an end to that run.

The Briton’s Ferrari struggles have been widely documented with Hamilton explaining at the Italian Grand Prix that he’s “still not 100 per cent comfortable with the car” and the “alien driving style” required.

But in the midst of a mini resurgence after his alarming mid-season slump, Hamilton put in one of his better race weekends at Ferrari’s home event as he qualified fifth, only to drop to P10 on the grid due to a penalty carried over from Zandvoort, and raced his way to sixth.

He was less than five seconds down on George Russell at the finish line in a result that has boosted Vasseur’s believe that Hamilton’s first podium in red is on the horizon.

“Yeah, because he was able to fight with Russell at Zandvoort and was able to come from P10 to the gearbox of Russell [at Monza],” Vasseur told media PlanetF1.com’s Thomas Maher and other media outlets when asked after the Italian Grand Prix if Hamilton could break his season’s podium duck.

“Yes, we can expect to be on the podium.

“Honestly, it started in Zandvoort last week, and it’s difficult because the outcome of the weekend was not positive, but at the end of the day, the pace was better from the beginning compared to Charles.

“The mood was better during the race, he was fighting with Russell until Lap 30, and that means he was in a better position, and I think the energy he received from the Tifosi on Wednesday in Milan was something very special for him.

“I don’t know what he was expecting, but it was something mega and this gave him an extra boost all weekend.

“For sure, we had to serve the penalty and knew it would not be an easy one, but he came back and the pace was there from the first lap of FP1.”

Lewis Hamilton v Charles Leclerc: F1 2025 head-to-head stats

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

Amidst Hamilton’s alarming pre-summer holiday slump, the seven-time World Champion’s head dropped as cut a notably frustrated figure.

Eliminated in Q2 at the Hungaroring on the back of a double Q1 elimination in Belgium, he told Sky F1: “It’s me, every time. I’m useless, absolutely useless.

“The team has no problems. You’ve seen the [other] car is on pole.

“They probably need to change driver.”

His happiness, though, returned with his Zandvoort and Monza performances, even if he did crash out of the Dutch Grand Prix.

“I’m happy with the progress through the weekend,” Hamilton said. “I think the progress from last weekend, and then carried that through this week, and so I’ve been relatively happy with the car, the progress.

“FP1, the car felt great. I think that’s where it felt probably the best. Then we went into FP2, we made changes into qualifying, and I think it was the most we could get from it.”

That carried into Sunday’s race where he reckons P5 was on the cards, saying: “I positioned the car really nicely, made my way forwards, and I think I could have got fifth today.

“I think I was 1.5 seconds behind George. We could have tried to undercut him. We missed that opportunity.”

Hamilton is up to 117 points in the Drivers’ standings where he is P6, one position but 46 points behind Charles Leclerc.

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