Lewis Hamilton ‘past his peak’ question raised amid Ferrari struggles

David Coulthard has questioned whether Lewis Hamilton is “past his peak” amid his ongoing F1 struggles.

After being consistently outperformed by George Russell in his final year with Mercedes, Hamilton’s woes, particularly over one lap, have continued since making a blockbuster switch to Ferrari.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton has been outclassed by new teammate Charles Leclerc in every metric this season and has struggled to adapt to Ferrari’s 2025 car, having gone 16 races without managing a grand prix podium.

While there have been small signs of improvement since the summer break, Hamilton still found himself behind Leclerc in both qualifying and the race at Zandvoort and Monza.

Hamilton’s lack of performance has left ex-F1 driver Coulthard pondering whether the 40-year-old Briton has lost some of his magic.

“Well, the old cliche is it never rains, but it pours,” Coulthard told Channel 4. “It just feels that off the back of the end of his Mercedes run alongside George, he’d lost his mojo there

“We hoped that he would rediscover it at Ferrari, be energised by the power of the Tifosi, but it just hasn’t worked out. And this is not an opinion business, because I know there’ll be people at home going, ‘how dare you say something negative about Lewis Hamilton?’

“The guy is brilliant, and he has been brilliant, but you’re judged against your teammate, and that’s the one thing that stands between him right now and a big result. He’s got to consistently get in front of Charles.

“I struggle to buy into the whole change your culture. It’s a race car, right, left, throttle, brake. Yes, there’s another way of terminology, but a power unit is a power unit. Downforce is downforce. When you break this sport down to its simplest forms, it’s about human and machine, and the very best at their peak are able to master that.

“So the question is, and I’m going to say it, is he past his peak?”

Did Lewis Hamilton join Ferrari too late?

Another former driver Eddie Irvine believes Hamilton made the move to Ferrari “too late” in his career, suggesting his best days are behind him.

“Problem with Lewis, he came a bit too old. But he won seven World Championships, so there’s always a price," Irvine told Sky Sports F1.

“It’s very difficult, Ferrari, because they’re on their own in Italy. The British teams are all surrounded by other teams, and there’s cross pollination. It’s so much different, more difficult to be on your own down in Maranello. That’s it. It’s always more difficult for Ferrari.

“They have the image, they have the history, they have everything except they don’t have that cross pollination, and that’s really tough.

“Back in my day, you had Michael come, he was seen as by far the fastest driver. Because of that, Rory Byrne came, Ross [Brawn] came, and that whole team was built around the fact that Michael was another world.”