Lewis Hamilton’s first season in red is starting to feel like a rerun you can’t quite believe you’re still watching.
That’s Johnny Herbert’s view, anyway. The former F1 driver and ex-FIA steward didn’t hold back when asked about Hamilton’s stop‑start 2025 with Ferrari, calling the seven-time champion’s hunt for a breakthrough “horrible to watch” and an “ongoing saga” as the calendar winds down.
Hamilton arrived at Maranello with all the fanfare you’d expect. The delivery has been tougher. He’s shown flashes—more lately than early on—but the clean, cathartic result still hasn’t landed. Mexico summed it up: Hamilton put the Ferrari on the second row with his best qualifying in red, went wheel-to-wheel with Max Verstappen in a proper elbows-out scrap, and then watched a 10-second penalty undo the lot after the stewards ruled he’d left the track and gained an advantage.
Herbert, speaking about that battle, admired the bite but lamented the outcome. “It was good to see Lewis race with Max. I thought that was a great piece of racing,” he said. “There was a little bit of wheel banging… It was a late dive up the inside. Lewis probably wasn’t expecting it… It was another frustrating weekend for him. It just didn’t click.”
The frustration is amplified by the other side of the Ferrari garage. Charles Leclerc has been metronomic this year, stacking points and podiums while Hamilton searches for rhythm and trust in the car. That contrast has become the story inside the Scuderia: one driver banking results, the other trying to pry open a weekend where everything lines up.
“It’s an ongoing saga for him where Charles is still being very consistent and getting the job done,” Herbert added. “Lewis did say he was more comfortable with the car, so let’s see if there is progress in the remaining races.”
Comfort has been a recurring theme. Some weekends Hamilton’s felt closer to the window—qualifying in Mexico being the latest example—only for track position, strategy shuffles or penalties to unravel the race-day picture. It’s not unique to him in this era of F1, but the bar he set across a decade at Mercedes means any stumble in scarlet is immediately magnified.
Ferrari, for their part, don’t sound panicked. The team’s balance has been solid enough to keep them in the fight on Saturdays and to manage races smartly when they’re not the quickest on pure pace. Leclerc’s consistency has cushioned the blow from Hamilton’s quieter Sundays, but the mood music around the team will change dramatically the moment Hamilton hauls the SF into parc fermé with a trophy.
That’s the thing about this “ongoing saga”: it only needs one clean weekend to flip the narrative. And you sense Hamilton knows it. The overtakes are still firm, the racecraft very much intact. What’s missing is that trouble-free Sunday where execution trumps drama.
Herbert—who stepped back from his FIA stewarding role earlier this year amid media commitments—speaks with the sympathy of someone who’s been there when a season won’t bend to your will. “They want that. All Lewis fans will want that at the same time,” he said. “It hasn’t yet materialised.”
Not yet. But the ingredients are creeping into place: improved qualifying, more comfort behind the wheel, and a Ferrari that’s generally giving its drivers something workable. Whether that adds up to the podium that’s been dangling just out of reach is now the question hanging over the final rounds.
Hamilton didn’t move to Ferrari to blend into the midfield noise, and you can tell it gnaws at him that Leclerc has been the one banking the hardware. Still, if there’s one driver you’d back to turn an uncomfortable season into a statement win at the eleventh hour, it’s the guy who’s made a career of summoning performances on demand.
“Horrible to watch” today, perhaps. But sport has a habit of snapping back quickly. One Sunday without the gotchas, one decisive stint at the right time, and the story shifts. Ferrari knows it. Hamilton certainly does. Now it’s down to execution—and a little mercy from the racing gods.
