Lewis Hamilton responds to F1 2025 podium prospects as clock ticks

Despite Fred Vasseur’s assurance that Lewis Hamilton will feature on the podium this season, the new Ferrari signing says it would not make a difference to his championship.

Hamilton’s switch to Ferrari after 12 years with Mercedes came with unprecedented hype as Formula 1’s most successful driver teamed up with the iconic team. The partnership has yet to deliver.

Will Lewis Hamilton feature on the podium this season?

Although Hamilton took a surprise pole-to-flag sprint win at round two in China, that’s been the total sum of his season’s highlights.

The seven-time World Champion has struggled to adapt to the characteristics of the Ferrari F1 car and its engine, with the Briton yet to add to his 202 podiums while in red.

His best grand prix performances have yielded three P4 finishes in a season in which his teammate Charles Leclerc has featured on the podium five times, putting him 44 points ahead of Hamilton with the teammates fifth and sixth in the Drivers’ standings.

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

It led in a difficult period for Hamilton ahead of the summer break, when, failing to progress to Q3 in three successive qualifying sessions, he declared himself “useless” and suggested that Ferrari “probably need to change driver”.

But bouncing back after the holiday, Ferrari team principal Vasseur was adamant that it’s only a matter of time before Hamilton secures a debut podium in red.

“Yes,” he told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets after the Italian Grand Prix, “because he was able to fight with [George] Russell in Zandvoort, and [he was able] to come back from P10 to the gearbox of Russell [in Monza]. Russell was a couple of times on the podium.

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

But while Hamilton would like a top-three result in the final seven grands prix of the campaign, he concedes it won’t make a difference to his season.

“It would be nice, but it’s not really going to change much for me,” he said.

The 40-year-old believes qualifying is the key to securing a podium result as he has only qualified inside the top ten twice in the last five grand prix weekends.

“If we qualify better, we’re going be in a much better position to race.

“I mean, I would give anything for an upgrade, but obviously we don’t have that to focus on next year’s car, so we just have to do better in optimising and execution.”

Should Hamilton fall short of the podium, it will be his first campaign in 19 seasons in Formula 1 without a top-three grand prix result.

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