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Lewis Hamilton’s first F1 season at Ferrari has been blown out of proportion.

Admittedly, it was easily done. The hype at the start of 2025 was overbearing, from when Hamilton first donned a red racesuit to the endless stream of content on Ferrari’s social media, all promising the champion’s return to the top.

No wonder we were all disappointed when Ferrari and Hamilton failed to join the title fight!

However, are Hamilton and Ferrari’s performances really worth the criticism that has been launched at them by the British and Italian media?

Carlos Sainz barely received a fraction of the same expectation and disappointment when he first joined Ferrari. It’s also hard to believe that even Max Verstappen would be under the same microscope as Hamilton should he fail to deliver at a new team.

It is going to take a long time for Hamilton and Ferrari to win again in F1. This should have been apparent at the start of the year, but we all got lost in the fairytale. Now, it’s time the media and fans started to get over it!
In defence of Hamilton’s first Ferrari season
Some figures within F1 have been more forgiving of Hamilton’s first season at Ferrari, with the likes of Sainz sympathising with the champion and revealing how difficult it is to settle in at a new team.

Rather than just losing his speed – which is an over simplistic diagnosis on Hamilton’s struggles – the champion was always going to need a lengthy period of time to adjust at Ferrari.

Hamilton is driving a car that is designed to suit the abilities of his team-mate Charles Leclerc. The 27-year-old has raced at the team since 2019 and is the only driver currently at Ferrari who has had an influence on the original development of the SF-25.

Alternatively, Hamilton has never raced alongside Leclerc as his team-mate. So, before he got behind the wheel of a Ferrari for the first time, how was Hamilton expected to understand the set-up of his team-mate, let alone master it before lights out in Australia?

Hamilton himself explained the difficulties in driving a car tailored to Leclerc at the Austrian Grand Prix, and admitted he was adjusting to moving closer to his team-mate’s set-up.

“Set-up even closer to Charles, yeah,” he said to the media after the race.

“He drives a massively oversteering car. Somehow slides the rear, so it doesn’t have degradation. When I slide the rear, I get massive degradation.”

The champion also added that it took Sainz a long period of time to adjust to the Ferrari, and Hamilton continued: “It’s definitely something I think you have to get used to. Supposedly, it took Carlos a couple of years to get used to. I don’t want to do that.”

Hamilton added at Silverstone that he wants his own ‘DNA’ in the 2026 car; and it is understandable that the champion wants to move to a car design better suited to his characteristics after this year.

Furthermore, if Ferrari’s car has been tailored to Leclerc for the past few years and still not produced a championship challenger, then perhaps the team needs to develop a car in line with Hamilton’s vision.

Not only have the fans and the media placed unrealistic expectations on Hamilton, but also heaped criticism on Ferrari’s team principal Fred Vasseur.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff recently defended Vasseur’s position at Ferrari, and referenced the Jean Todt era as evidence of the time it takes to become a championship-winning outfit.

“Today we talked about Jean Todt. Jean Todt, if I’m not wrong, joined the [Ferrari] team in 1993 and they won the first championship in 2000. ‘93, ‘94, ‘95, ‘96, ‘97, ‘98, ‘99, 2000. Eight years. That’s how it goes, and it comes at cycles,” Wolff explained to Formula 1.

We’ve all been too hard on Lewis Hamilton. As the media, and as fans. We fell head-first into the hype and believed in miracles that could never come to fruition.

Instead, little consideration has been given to the process that will allow Ferrari to win again. Going forwards in 2025 we should manage our expectations and not dish out disproportionate levels of criticism.

Besides, applying more external pressure to Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari won’t make them a championship-winning team anytime soon.