Guenther Steiner doesn’t deal in fairy tales. And his read on Lewis Hamilton’s first months in red is as blunt as it gets: if the seven-time champion doesn’t emerge from the summer break reset and recharged, 2025 could be the end of the road.
Speaking to Web.de, the former Haas boss said Hamilton “hasn’t lived up to expectations” since swapping Mercedes for Ferrari. The sting isn’t just in the results, it’s in the body language. Steiner reckons Hamilton’s confidence has taken a hit, the early-season hype colliding with a trickier reality.
The timing isn’t great. Hamilton turned 40 before his Ferrari debut, and while Steiner acknowledged he’s in “great shape” and capable of a high level for “a few more years,” he didn’t soften the core point: if you’re not enjoying it and feel you’re fighting uphill every weekend, what’s the point?
Ferrari’s summer shutdown was reached with Hamilton still hunting his first podium in scarlet and 42 points adrift of Charles Leclerc. Hungary was the sorest note. Leclerc stuck it on pole for Ferrari’s first P1 of the year; Hamilton could do no better than P12 and was furious with himself, calling his performance “useless” and even quipping that Ferrari should “change driver.” He finished where he started and, when pressed after the flag, offered little more than “I have nothing else to say.” Asked if Zandvoort after the break was a certainty, he replied: “Hopefully I will be back, yeah.”
That kind of self-critique isn’t new for Hamilton, but it lands differently in a debut Ferrari season. Steiner’s view is that there aren’t many excuses on offer, car included. Yes, the SF-25 has its edges, but, as he put it, a “top driver has to be able to cope with what he is given… I wouldn’t look for excuses for Lewis.”
The wildcard in all this is that Hamilton doesn’t need Formula 1 to stay relevant. He’s a global brand with an overflowing slate outside the cockpit—fashion, film, business. If the enjoyment isn’t there, walking away is an option, not a threat. “Maybe he’ll come back more relaxed after the break and his performance will improve,” Steiner said. “But maybe not, and then I could well imagine him saying at the end of the year: ‘That’s it.’”
There are counter-signs of commitment. Hamilton’s been leaning into Ferrari’s 2026 project, filing what he’s described as documents aimed at shaping a better future—he’s denied they’re design orders or an attempt to tilt focus away from Leclerc. Still, he hasn’t fully clicked with the SF-25, and time waits for no one in Maranello.
Hamilton’s deal runs multi-year, widely believed through 2026. Contracts, though, are only part of the story. The other part arrives after summer: Zandvoort, then a relentless run of races that will tell us whether this is a rough start to a new chapter—or the final pages of an era.
