Ferrari’s slump has found a convenient fall guy, and Leo Turrini isn’t having it.
The veteran Italian journalist has pushed back on the growing chorus blaming Lewis Hamilton for Ferrari’s flat 2025, calling the seven-time champion a “legend” and the scapegoating “ridiculous” given the machinery on offer and Charles Leclerc’s current edge.
Hamilton’s jump from Mercedes to Ferrari was the transfer that detonated the paddock. He activated an exit clause barely months after signing an extension, and the move looked shrewd when Ferrari finished last season on a high. The expectation was clear: build on that form, hit 2025 running. Instead, the Scuderia haven’t won a race. Leclerc has carried the podiums, and while Ferrari sit second in the standings, they’re miles adrift of McLaren on points.
In a sport that loves a simple narrative, Hamilton’s struggles against Leclerc have been framed as proof he’s faded at 40. The Briton hasn’t sugarcoated his own form either; he sounded particularly flat before the summer break, calling himself “useless” after a rough run and even suggesting Ferrari might consider “changing” drivers. Cue the pile-on.
Turrini, writing on his blog, drew a line between legacy and the present. You can’t rewrite Hamilton’s past, he argued, and you shouldn’t pretend this Ferrari is anything but a handful. Leclerc being quicker? That tracks with what many expected. But pinning a winless campaign on Hamilton alone, with Ferrari trailing McLaren by a chasm after 14 rounds, misses the point entirely. If Hamilton has more to show, Turrini added, he’ll have to prove it — but he’s not the cause of Maranello’s problems.
That’s the nub of it. Hamilton didn’t arrive to a title-ready car; he arrived to a project. And as Ferrari’s development pulse faded through the first half of the season, the team’s base pace and balance left both drivers managing limitations rather than fighting for wins. Leclerc has extracted more, yes, but the bigger story is the package.
Hamilton, for his part, reset the tone heading into the break. He thanked the team for the push, admitted the weekend execution wasn’t there, and promised to come back sharper. The “don’t count me out” talk wasn’t bluster so much as a reminder: his ceiling hasn’t vanished overnight.
The second half of 2025 will decide how this looks in the rear-view. If Ferrari find the step they were supposed to find in the winter, Hamilton’s narrative changes quickly. If not, the noise will return — and it’ll be the wrong lesson again. The driver is famous enough to carry the blame. The car still has to carry the fight.
