Ferrari is Ferrari, glorious and exasperating in equal measure. It can build a masterpiece then trip over its own shoelaces. It can outthink the grid one weekend then outthink itself the next. It is set in its ways: it rarely bends its culture to suit the preferences of an incoming megastar, especially one whose age dictates that such bending might have to be undone, or at least adapted, before too long. The 2026 regulations will usher in a new technical era, and, while that offers opportunity, it also magnifies risk. Insiders, pundits, and fans all harbour the fear that the car that Lewis will drive in his 20th F1 season may not be the one he deserves, and may not therefore allow him to express his genius as he once did with such majestic regularity. And time waits for no man, and no driver, not even one as supremely gifted and as obsessively fit as Hamilton.
Or, to put it another way, we who respect and admire Lewis are becoming troubled by the spectre that no one who loves our sport, and who loves Lewis, wants to see: the possibility that his F1 career might peter out unimpressively, as Michael Schumacher’s did after his injudicious return to F1 with Mercedes in 2010, 2011, and 2012. The old gunslinger, the colossus of his era, came back ever so slightly diminished when, also aged 41, in Bahrain in 2010 he rode back into town after a three-year layoff. He was not diminished in courage or commitment but in out-and-out sharpness, and the sight of him being serially outqualified, outraced, and outpointed by his much younger team-mate Nico Rosberg was painful for those of us who had witnessed first hand just how brilliant he had been in his prime. It did not tarnish his F1 greatness, but it complicated his narrative, for it added an unnecessary and regrettable coda. Now, many in F1 fear, quietly and reluctantly, that Lewis could be facing a similar fate, not because he lacks ability, but because the sport is unforgiving, its variables numerous and perplexing, and because Ferrari still appears to be a few seasons away from achieving technical, operational, and political equilibrium.
Early testing has been promising, with Hamilton topping the opening test at Barcelona, but can it last?
That is not to say that Lewis has lost it, far from it. Even in recent seasons, in cars that have not always flattered his driving style, he has delivered real quality. He won the 2025 Shanghai Sprint, beating Oscar Piastri (second) and Max Verstappen (third). He won two grands prix, at Silverstone and Spa, in 2024. And think back to the closing races of 2021, a season that should have crowned him F1 world champion for the eighth time but did not, owing to what can only be described, without exaggeration, as a regulatory aberration and a sporting disgrace.
But before that stain besmirched the sport in Abu Dhabi in 2021 — under immense pressure, for it had seemed that the F1 drivers’ world championship was slipping through his fingers — Lewis had responded not with petulance or panic but with bravado and brilliance. After finishing second to Verstappen in Mexico, and finding himself trailing his young rival by 19 points, he then won superbly in Brazil, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, thereby hauling his world championship points total up to precise parity with Verstappen’s: 369.5 points apiece. And in Abu Dhabi he had been leading the race, and he had been touching the hem of his eighth F1 drivers’ world championship, until fate, and a misapplication of the rules, intervened.
What followed was, in its own way, as impressive as anything Hamilton has ever done in a race car. He behaved with admirable restraint and commendable decorum. He did not rant. He did not rail. He did not fan the flames. Instead, he withdrew. He silenced his social media accounts. He granted no media interviews. For weeks, he said nothing publicly, absorbing a profound injustice with a dignity that is all too rare in a sport that thrives on noise. It was a masterclass in self-control, and it spoke volumes about his character.
Yet sometimes, because of what has happened since — because, in other words, he so rarely had a fully competitive car in 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 — I find myself wishing that when he had emerged from that self-imposed purdah, which in my imagined version of events he should have done on January 7, 2022, his 37th birthday, he had chosen a different path. I wish, selfishly perhaps, that he had emulated one of his best ever team-mates, Nico Rosberg, who quit at the apex of his career after winning the 2016 world title, having achieved his ultimate goal and knowing that the cost of staying might outweigh the rewards. For Lewis, the apex would have been Abu Dhabi 2021. Not because he won the world titles there — on the contrary, we all know that he was robbed of it there — but because he had earned it there, on track, on merit, in performance, and in spirit.
Still got it: Hamilton claimed victory in the Sprint at Shanghai last year, his first success in red
DPPI
In my fantasy, on the morning of January 7, 2022, Lewis would have stood before a video camera and said, calmly and clearly, something like this: “I have spent the past month carefully considering my position. Over 15 seasons I have devoted 100% of my energies to the sport I love, and I have been fortunate to work with some fantastic people and thereby to have achieved a good deal of success. That has been a wonderful privilege. I want to thank all those people, and my family, my fans, and the media who have reported my efforts so diligently. But that side of my life is now over. Today is my 37th birthday, and I am now old enough to know my own mind, young enough to be able to plan an exciting next phase of my professional life, and satisfied that I have fulfilled my potential as a racing driver. Had the F1 regulations been applied more equitably and more appropriately in Abu Dhabi last month, I might have come to a different decision, even if I had still failed to win the 2021 world championship. But such was not the case – and, for that reason more than for any other, I find myself unwilling and unable to continue to race in F1, which is a demanding and dangerous pursuit, with the commitment that it requires and my team and my fans deserve. So today I am announcing my retirement as an F1 driver. I congratulate Max Verstappen on his recent success, for he is a great driver with a fantastic future ahead of him, and any injustices perpetrated in Abu Dhabi last month were absolutely not of his making. Finally, more than anything else, once again, I would like to thank my family, my teams, the media, and above all my unswervingly loyal fans for their support. Goodbye, and God bless you all.”