Lewis Hamilton has already resigned himself to missing out on the Formula 1 2025 Drivers’ Championship after just five races, according to an F1 expert.
The 40-year-old finished the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in seventh place while his team-mate Charles Leclerc took third and secured the team’s first podium finish of the season. Hamilton trails the Monegasque by 16 points and is already 68 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri after five races.
The task of catching the Australian may be beyond even his capabilities. The biggest deficit overturned in the current points system happened back in 2022 when Max Verstappen won the title, having been 46 adrift of Leclerc.
After the race in Jeddah, Hamilton said that there is “no fix” for their issues and admitted “it’s going to be painful” for the rest of the season.
Speaking on the Total Motorsport F1 Show, F1 journalist Brandon Sutton believes the Briton has too much work to do to catch his rivals after Ferrari’s disappointing start to the season, and suggested he may use the rest of the season to get acquainted with the Scuderia.
“I think personally he [Hamilton] might be writing himself out of world championship contention,” Sutton said. “Because if he’s still learning these issues five races in and it’s going to take another five to fix – that’s 10 races into the year.
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“All of that time he’s lost compared to the McLarens, Red Bull and his team-mate would be too much for him to overcome. He might just be giving up on the title this year, but he won’t be giving up on trying to fit into Ferrari properly.”
Hamilton and Ferrari may switch focus to 2026
Joining Sutton on the Total Motorsport F1 Show was F1 expert Ewan Gale, who felt Hamilton’s comments that Ferrari were a nod towards their plans for 2026 when the new F1 engine regulations are implemented.
“[He said] it’s going to be the same all year. You could read into that and think maybe Ferrari are looking at the first few races and thinking it’s actually better if they put all their eggs in the basket for 2026,” Gale said.
“Or you could say that Hamilton is really downcast and has thrown in the towel. But that’s not Hamilton, he’s always the best in the face of adversity and he’s done that throughout his career.
“What is worrying is that there didn’t seem to be an awful lot of positives to take out of the weekend [in Saudi Arabia]. He wasn’t happy with how the tyres were working, he wasn’t happy with driving out of corners. And especially going to a track like Miami, which isn’t entirely different from Jeddah, what are Ferrari going to do to help him overcome those issues? Is it going to be more of the same?
“It’s not brilliant news if you’re a Hamilton fan or Ferrari fan, but I don’t think what he’s saying is ‘the season’s over, we’re going to be in these positions all year’. I think it’s more a case of ‘these are the car characteristics, we can try and come around them but we’re not going to cure them this year’.”
