Lewis Hamilton’s first year in red ended with a thud, not a flourish. And Martin Brundle didn’t sugarcoat it.
“Not on this year’s results, no,” the Sky Sports pundit said when asked if Hamilton still has the toolkit to beat Charles Leclerc in equal machinery. Hard to argue: Ferrari’s seven podiums in 2025 all belonged to Leclerc, who outscored his new teammate by 86 points. Hamilton’s lone piece of silverware? The China Sprint. The grand prix podiums never came.
For a signing that shook the sport, the stat line is stark. Leclerc looked at ease, relentless on Saturdays and tidy on Sundays. Hamilton, by contrast, closed the year with four straight Q1 exits across sprint and grand prix sessions. That’s the sort of run that earns a thousand think pieces in Maranello, and none of them are kind.
Brundle’s broader view is less fatalistic. He doesn’t see Hamilton walking away now. With 2026 bringing a full reset—new chassis rules, new power unit architecture—the seven-time champion has the perfect excuse to play the long game. “I’d be very surprised if he just switches it off this winter,” Brundle noted. Sensible. If you’ve come this far to wear Ferrari red, you don’t quit on the eve of a rulebook revolution.
Nico Rosberg homed in on the obvious weak spot. “His great struggle this year was qualifying pace,” said the 2016 World Champion, pointing out that Hamilton’s race craft still flashed at times. He’s not wrong. When the SF-25 allowed it, Hamilton managed tyres and traffic like the old master. But this era punishes poor grid slots more than most, and Ferrari can’t fight at the front if one car starts in the weeds. Rosberg’s caveat is the same as Brundle’s: with “the cars being so different next year,” perhaps qualifying can become a strength again.
Hamilton isn’t pretending otherwise. He knows he was second-best in the garage. But he bristled at the idea that 2025 defines the story. “I’m not concerned about it, no,” he said of the Leclerc comparison. “Obviously, Charles has done a great job. He’s been there for seven years… it’s a well-oiled machine. On my side, it’s a new group of people… a new environment that I’m still getting used to working with. Then I had another new member halfway through the year.” Translation: chemistry takes time, and Ferrari’s left-hand/right-hand dance is never simple in Year 1.
That’s a fair point, and easy to overlook when the name on the timing screen is Hamilton. He’s built dynasties before; he also knows what it feels like to climb a hill that looks steeper from the cockpit than it does on TV. But 2026 won’t magically solve everything. New rules create opportunity and jeopardy in equal measure. If Ferrari nails the concept and the engine, they’ll need two drivers who can unlock it straight away. That means Hamilton has to find Saturdays again—confidence on the limit, trust on turn-in, tyres in the right window on lap one. Leclerc lives there.
The internal dynamic is equally simple. Leclerc has the garage rhythm, the language, the edges. He’s the reference. Hamilton, 41 by the ’26 opener, brings something priceless in return: the eye for development direction and a memory bank of title fights that most on the grid can only imagine. Maranello should exploit both. Give him a front axle he can lean on, a rear that bites without snapping, and watch if the qualy laps start arriving again.
The bigger question lives outside the Ferrari bubble: is the sport about to reset enough to blur the lines between today’s haves and have-nots? History says regulation overhauls can reshuffle the deck in ways that make reputations look foolish. Hamilton’s not betting against that. Nor should Ferrari. The gap to Leclerc this season was real, but not irreversible—if the car changes the conversation and if Hamilton stops giving away Saturdays.
There’s also the psychology. Hamilton’s been around too long to be rattled by one bad year, even a bruiser like this. What will bother him is the noise: the Q1 headlines, the body language photos, the reminders that Leclerc did all the podium talking. That kind of scrutiny either wears you down or sharpens you up. Guess which version turned up after title defeats before.
So here’s the honest state of play heading into a crucial winter. Leclerc is Ferrari’s anchor. Hamilton, for now, is the chaser. Brundle’s call is fair: based on 2025, you don’t pick Hamilton to beat Leclerc in equal kit. But 2025 is in the bin. Ferrari’s next car will behave differently, the engine map will sing a new tune, and the driver who better adapts to the unknown will lead the dance.
Hamilton didn’t come to Maranello to be a supporting act. If Ferrari give him a platform and he finds that missing half-second over one lap, the conversation flips fast. If not, the scarlet experiment becomes a slog.
The clock’s already running. And the first time we’ll know if the needle moved won’t be on a Sunday—it’ll be the first hot lap that actually sticks on a Saturday.
