Report: Ferrari not planning Hamilton extension as tough first season bites
The whispers around the Foro Sol were always going to follow Lewis Hamilton out of Mexico City. After qualifying third in the capital, the seven-time champion cut a thoughtful figure, and by Sunday night the paddock chatter had crystallised into something sharper: senior figures have indicated Ferrari don’t plan to extend Hamilton’s deal when it ends, according to an ESPN report.
It’s a story that lands with extra weight given how 2025 has unfolded. Hamilton’s first year in red has been a grind. No podiums in 20 starts, a best finish of fourth, and a 64-point deficit to Charles Leclerc with four rounds left. The headline moment was a sprint win in China back in March, but it was immediately tempered by a Sunday disqualification for plank wear that exposed the SF-25’s ride-height tightrope. Ferrari have been managing that ever since, lifting the car and bleeding performance at the circuits where it hurts most.
Leclerc, meanwhile, has done what Leclerc does: extract results. Seven podiums so far, the latest a sharp P2 in Mexico. He’s carried the points, and he’s set the reference. Hamilton’s been close enough in qualifying to tease a breakthrough, but the races have tended to slip away on balance, strategy, or pace over the long run.
Ferrari never published the length of Hamilton’s contract when they prised him away from Mercedes in February 2024, beyond calling it a “multi-year” deal. It’s widely believed to run at least to the end of 2026, lining up with the next rules reset. There’s also been talk since August of a driver-side option to 2027 — a clause reported in Italy that would leave Maranello with little leverage if Hamilton chose to exercise it. If true, that’s the sort of nuance that keeps team principals awake at night; flexibility is currency in a market that’s already moving.
Set that against the ESPN line that Ferrari won’t be offering any new terms beyond the current arrangement, and you get the picture. The team is not in a sentimental phase. It wants results now and freedom later, especially with 2026 looming and the driver market shifting beneath it.
Hamilton, for his part, has sounded anything but finished. Speaking to L’Equipe last month, he pushed back on retirement talk, saying he has “no intention of stopping anytime soon.” Inside Ferrari, he’s tried to put his fingerprints on the project: sending detailed documents to leadership, sitting down with the top brass, and challenging the way the team operates across departments and at the track. He’s admitted it comes from a refusal to trace the same arc as Fernando Alonso or Sebastian Vettel — titans who arrived in Maranello with titles and left without the one that matters most.
Some of those suggestions have played out in public. In Singapore, Hamilton called out the habit of queueing both cars at the end of the pit lane before qualifying runs — a tiny thing that, in the modern heat-treatment of tyre preparation, can mean everything. He followed up with another internal report after the weekend, according to Italian media. It’s the work of a driver trying to bend a huge, tradition-steeped operation by degrees. That rarely yields a headline overnight.
And yet Ferrari’s stance — or at least the stance being briefed — is understandable. The SF-25 has been a capricious tool, but the scoreboard is the scoreboard. Leclerc has been the one cashing the cheques on Sundays. The team also has to keep one eye on 2026 and another on 2027. If there really is a unilateral extension in Hamilton’s pocket, the calculus becomes simple: let the current deal run, see where performance lands under the next regulations, and keep options open if the dynamic doesn’t shift.
There’s also the wider ecosystem to consider. Ferrari’s pipeline remains active, and the market beyond Maranello never sleeps. Even the suggestion that the door won’t be pushed open beyond the current term will move conversations in paddock back rooms.
None of that changes the immediate task. Hamilton needs a result — a proper, silver-service Ferrari podium — to bend the narrative back in his direction before the winter. The speed is there in flashes. The execution hasn’t followed with the consistency he’s built a career on. That tends to sting the most when you’re 40, in red, and expected to conjure Sunday miracles on demand.
Is this the end of the road before it’s truly begun? Hardly. But it does feel like Ferrari drawing a line in pencil. Perform, prove the project is on track for 2026, and the tone will soften. Don’t, and the Scuderia will do what it has always done: think about the next era, not the last name. In Maranello, the calendar — and the stopwatch — are the only two things that ever win an argument.
