Lewis Hamilton sets late-season podium target as Ferrari form steadies
Lewis Hamilton has never had a season without a podium. Eighteen years in Formula 1, at least one top-three every time. That run is now under threat — and the seven-time champion isn’t hiding from it.
With five race weekends left on the board, Hamilton’s goal is simple and brutally honest: nick a podium before the year’s out and help Ferrari beat Mercedes to second in the Constructors’ standings.
“I’d just say consistency,” he said in Austin when asked what would make a good finish to his first campaign in red. “If I can even get a podium at some point, just finish ahead of the Mercedes — that’s our goal. If I can help the team secure second in the Constructors’, that would be a good end to the year.”
The irony isn’t lost on anyone. Hamilton’s lone “win” this season came in the Shanghai Sprint, a tidy reminder of the old sharpness, but the main-event silverware has stubbornly stayed away. He’s logged a string of fourth places — close enough to smell the champagne, never quite close enough to taste it — and that, more than anything, sums up Year 1 of this Ferrari partnership so far.
It’s been a learning curve as steep as the COTA climb into Turn 1. After a lifetime of Mercedes power, Hamilton’s spent much of 2025 nudging at the SF-25’s edges, trying to find a window where the car comes alive. The last few rounds have offered a glimmer that the needle’s moving.
“It’s trending in the right direction,” he said. “I’m definitely feeling better in the car. I’m going to deep-dive these next couple of days, figure out how to extract more from it, get it in a slightly better place. Overall, pretty decent.”
Austin, though, also delivered a reminder of just how knife-edge this season’s been. Late in the race Hamilton thought his afternoon was about to unravel when the Ferrari suddenly washed wide.
“I went into Turn 5 and it felt like I hit something. Massive understeer. I thought I had a puncture,” he explained. “Into Turn 11 the thing wouldn’t stop. I was like, ‘geez, what’s going on?’ Somehow I held on through the last few corners — it was close to Piastri getting past.” In other words: not a puncture, but certainly a heartbeat’s worth of drama.
Inside the Ferrari garage, the to-do list hasn’t changed: qualify sharper, babysit the tyres better, and turn those P4s into P3s. Do that while keeping the silver cars behind and Maranello will sign off 2025 with a result it can live with, even if it’s short of the headline act they hired Hamilton for.
The calendar ahead gives him a few inviting shots. High-deg Sundays could play to Hamilton’s feel, and he’s always had a knack for turning scrappy weekends into solid points when others unravel. He’s also been more at ease with the SF-25’s rear-end quirks of late, which has translated into cleaner stints and fewer radio groans.
Will the career-long podium streak survive? That’s the storyline to watch. The numbers — more than 200 podiums and counting — don’t need dressing up. Hamilton doesn’t either. There’s an air of calm about him now: less searching, more chiseling. If Ferrari can hand him a car that’s in the right window from Saturday, you’d back him to do the rest.
One thing’s clear: there’ll be no victory laps for merely “getting close.” He wants that rostrum shot in red this season. The way Hamilton put it in Texas — pragmatic, a little weary, but resolute — sounded like a driver who knows exactly what’s missing and how thin the margins are to get it back. That streak isn’t dead yet. It’s on life support. And if there’s one driver you don’t count out in the late rounds, it’s the guy who built the streak in the first place.
