Major source of Lewis Hamilton frustration claimed as Ferrari ‘fairytale’ falters
Lewis Hamilton has had a challenging start to the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix weekend.
Arriving at Ferrari with the dream of winning races and fighting for the World title, Jamie Chadwick says it’s no wonder Lewis Hamilton is venting his frustrations over his results.
Hamilton joined Ferrari in a bombshell move as he shocked the world of motorsport when he announced even before the first race of last year’s championship that it would be his final campaign with Mercedes.
There’s been no Ferrari fairytale for Lewis Hamilton
What followed was 12 months of pundits putting forward their expectations of his time at Ferrari, the majority of which hyped it up.
With his move to Ferrari coinciding with an upturn in form in the latter part of last season, Ferrari were expected to kick on and challenge for the titles.
Instead, they’ve yet to even win a grand prix while Hamilton hasn’t even featured on the podium.
The Briton did have a brief moment of success when he won the Chinese Sprint from pole to flag, and he hit out at “yapping” critics who didn’t appreciate the challenge he was facing swapping teams.
“I see certain individuals – and again, I don’t read the news, but I see bits here and there – see people that I’ve admired for years just talking out of turn,” he said.
“Clearly some of them really just making uneducated guesses of what’s going on, just a real lack of appreciation.
“The amount of critics and people I’ve heard yapping along the way just clearly not understanding.”
Five months later, the biggest critic Hamilton has today is himself.
Downbeat at the Belgian Grand Prix when he suffered back-to-back Q1 eliminations, Hamilton said he would have to “look internally” because it was “unacceptable to be out in both Q1s”.
He added: “It’s a very, very poor performance from myself.”
A week later in Hungary, after yet another early qualifying exit while Charles Leclerc put his Ferrari on pole, Hamilton said Ferrari “probably need to change driver” as he was “useless, absolutely useless”.
He went on to say that “hopefully” he’ll be back in the car after the summer break.
His negative comments raised eyebrows in the paddock with some, such as Bernie Ecclestone, suggesting that it is time for Hamilton to hang up his helmet.
However, former W Series racer Chadwick says Hamilton’s reaction to his results is understandable given his performances have not lived up to the pre-season hype.
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“It’s definitely not the fairy tale we’re all hoping for,” Chadwick told the Sky F1 podcast. “That’s for sure.
“I think there’s a few ways to look at it.
“It’s been a really tough few races for Lewis, and also in that race [Hungary], lap seven he’s been told to lift more to manage overheating.
“As a driver, you’re already having a tough weekend, and you told you can’t even attack, to try and kind of make up for it, almost.
“So he just had a tough, tough weekend, and it’s compounded, issues that we’ve seen from earlier in the year.
“I think part of the reason he’s so down on himself and so frustrated, I think it was Fred Vasseur who said it’s out of frustration rather than anything else, is because he’s gone there to try and win an eighth World title.
“He’s gone there because he wants to be winning the World title, winning races weekend, weekend out, and even if you just have one or two bad weekends, that’s frustrating when he knows what he’s there to try to achieve.
“So it’s very hard listening, to be honest.
“I really hope the summer break gives an opportunity for not just him but Ferrari to kind of reflect and find a way out of it, because it’s not nice for anyone to sort of hear that, but particularly from a driving point of view, it’s a really hard listen to be honest.”
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur isn’t overly concerned about Hamilton’s downbeat responses, saying it’s born out of frustration.
“I don’t need to motivate him, honestly. He’s frustrated, but not demotivated. It’s a completely different story,” Vasseur told media including PlanetF1.com.
“I can perfectly understand the situation.
“Sometimes just after the race, or just after the qualy, you are very disappointed, and the reaction, the first reaction, is off.
“But we all know that we are pushing in the same direction.”
Hamilton, who has yet to score a podium in red, is P6 in the Drivers’ standings, one position behind Leclerc but 42 points down.
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