Lewis Hamilton could retire if Ferrari F1 struggles continue in 2026, reckons JP Montoya

Lewis Hamilton could walk away from Formula 1 if he continues to struggle at Ferrari at the start of the next regulation cycle in 2026, believes Juan Pablo Montoya.

Hamilton’s high-profile F1 move to Ferrari has fallen short of expectations so far, with the Briton unable to regularly challenge his teammate Charles Leclerc.

While Leclerc has logged three grand prix podiums so far this year, Hamilton is yet to finish higher than fourth in a Sunday race, although he did clinch a sensational victory in the Chinese GP sprint earlier in March.

In terms of points scored, Leclerc has comprehensively outgunned Hamilton 104-79 after the opening 10 rounds of the season.

Former Williams and McLaren star Montoya believes Hamilton is working hard with Ferrari’s engineers to turn around his campaign, with the SF-25 a completely different beast to Mercedes’ F1 cars he drove for 12 years in a row.

But if Hamilton makes no significant progress in 2026, when F1 will introduce sweeping changes to chassis and engine rules, Montoya believes the Briton might be inclined to call it a day.

“I think Hamilton is more hungry right now than he's ever been to prove everybody wrong,” he told Casino Hawks. “But if 2026 goes bad, he might start going, ‘I can't be bothered.’

“But he's pushing them right now. Whether they are happy with him pushing them, I am not sure! I do think he needs to grill them and for them to be uncomfortable, the engineers, whether they like it or not.

“The engineers need to understand that Lewis is not trying to be a d**k to them, but trying to make the car better. I think that's really hard. And you need to learn as an engineer and as a driver not to take shit personally.

“At the end of the day, they're both after the same thing. Lewis is not questioning whether the engineer is really smart or not, but he's questioning whether they're making enough decisions and the right decisions.

“They need to leave their ego at home and go to work. Ferrari need someone to manage that relationship better.”

Lewis Hamilton "not comfortable" with Ferrari F1 car

Montoya believes the Canadian GP was a great showcase of Hamilton’s talent, with the 40-year-old finishing sixth and just one spot behind Leclerc despite hitting a groundhog early in the race and damaging his car.

The Colombian racer believes Ferrari needs to do more to make the car driveable, as even Leclerc - who has been with the team since 2019 - is not always comfortable with the SF-25.

“For the first time since China, Lewis was looking pretty competitive,” remarked Montoya. “He looked good.

“There were some rumours that they had a new floor or something. That was good. But he is supposed to have damaged it on lap 10 or something when he hit an animal and damaged the car. And despite that, he finished only 20 seconds [before the safety car] behind Leclerc.

“If the damage cost him, say two or three tenths of a second a lap, it means he was right there.

“It's interesting that Fred Vasseur said after the race that there was only one thing Ferrari had not changed.

“I think he meant that the more they focus the car on Lewis, the better they're going to run as a team. That’s not saying they shouldn't pay attention to Charles, but Charles has been leading that team for the last seven years.

“It's a car that is difficult to drive. Lewis is not comfortable. The only guy driving it is Charles. When Charles is good, he's very good. But when he misses it, it's a big miss.

“So, if Ferrari says we need the car to be more drivable, it is going to help Charles as well as Lewis.”