Lewis Hamilton hit with surprise ‘sit by and do nothing’ Schumacher criticism

According to Ralf Schumacher, there has been a tendency for Lewis Hamilton to “sit by and do nothing” amid a very challenging first season with Ferrari.

It is a surprise statement from the six-time grand prix winner, and one which goes against what Hamilton has been saying throughout F1 2025, from his “documents” to post-Qatar GP “notes”, all created with the aim of trying to morph Ferrari into a winning team once more.

‘Sit by and do nothing’ counters Lewis Hamilton version of events

F1 2025 has certainly not been the season which Hamilton and Ferrari had in mind, when the sport’s most successful driver and team joined forces.

Ferrari has not won a Grand Prix this year. Hamilton has not been on the podium as a Ferrari driver.

In the opinion of Schumacher, “the performance is not good” from Hamilton, a very valid opinion which he expressed on Sky Deutschland, and one which Hamilton himself would not argue.

He admitted back in Bahrain that he was “not doing a good enough job”. Results have not exactly picked up since.

Schumacher added that the post-Brazil statement issued by Ferrari chairman John Elkann was meant as a “warning to Hamilton”, Elkann having issued the order of “focus on driving, talk less”, one which did not discriminate between Hamilton or teammate Charles Leclerc.

Where Schumacher’s analysis became questionable was when he accused Hamilton of “a tendency to sit by and do nothing this year.”

He added: “But he’s just not good enough. I believe Ferrari expected more from it.”

Lewis Hamilton has been very active at Ferrari

Hamilton has not delivered the kind of performances anticipated in his first Ferrari season, but to be accused of standing by and letting it happen, will sting.

“I’ve sent documents, I’ve done [that] through the year,” said Hamilton back in the summer.

“After the first few races, I did a full document for the team. Then during this break [between Britain and Belgium], I had another two documents that I sent in, and so they would come in and want to address those.”

Hamilton said he saw it as “my job to challenge absolutely every area” in pursuit of bringing title-winning ways back to Ferrari. He declared “I refuse” to be another champion who could not replicate that achievement in Ferrari red, name-dropping Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel as examples.

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc head-to-head in F1 2025

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

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

Skip forward to the Qatar Grand Prix, a bitter disappointment for Hamilton as he suffered a double Q1 exit, and again he was at work trying to lift Ferrari up.

“I’ve got so many notes in terms of things we need to improve on,” he told Sky F1.

“Time will tell whether or not we act on those things and we keep hold of the things that are good and change the things that are not – and there’s plenty of those.

“There’s literally no reason why we couldn’t fix those if we just put those into action. I’m hopeful for us making progress.”

To accuse Hamilton of underperforming, that is fair. To say he is sitting around and doing “nothing” about it, at least based on what Hamilton is telling the world, does not stack up.

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