Lewis Hamilton warned of ‘big problem’ with Ferrari move under F1 champion scrutiny

Mika Hakkinen: I knew I was losing my edge

While Hamilton’s race day performances remained as strong as ever, the seven-time F1 World Champion struggled in qualifying alongside Russell.

While there were occasionally extenuating circumstances, such as incidents or experimentation with setups, Russell finished 19-5 to Hamilton in qualifying, and 5-1 in Sprint qualifying – a comprehensive victory over the season for the younger British driver.

Hamilton has been open in assessing his qualifying as a weakness in 2024, often expressing mystification as to why he was struggling for pace over a single lap, and made an eye-opening admission in Qatar when it was put to him that the issues must stem from factors other than himself.

“Who knows? I’m definitely not fast anymore,” he said.

Hamilton has signed up to race for Ferrari in F1 2025, and the big question mark of Hamilton – who turns 40 this month – is whether or not his struggles have been down to an inability to click with the Mercedes in his final year, or whether issues with his own speed are here to stay.

Two-time F1 World Champion Mika Hakkinen asked similar questions of himself in 2001 when, after winning two consecutive titles in 1998 and 2000 before a narrow defeat to Michael Schumacher in 2000, he realised that his natural speed was ebbing away from him.

Asked whether he can see some of the same traits in Hamilton nowadays as he felt himself in 2001, Hakkinen offered his perspective on the situation.

“Well, I tell you what, I retired in 2001 and, in that year 2001, I started losing my edge,” he said exclusively to PlanetF1.com.

“Sometimes I was very quick. Sometimes I wasn’t there.

“I lost two or three-tenths and those two or three-tenths are a big, big problem.

“So, at that time, I decided to tell the team that, ‘Thank you, this has been an incredible experience and the journey of my career and my life in Formula 1, but now, for me, it’s time to step out’.

“It was a very big decision. But that was me.

“What’s happening with Lewis is impossible to comment on what’s happening in his mind and, on what’s happening at the moment, why the performance is not there 100 percent.

“I’m not the right person to answer for that – it’s Lewis, but that was my story.”

If Hamilton suspects that he is losing his edge, Hakkinen said it’s on him to be open with his new team.

“If something similar has happened to him, he has to speak,” he said.

“He’s the right person to answer that, but he has committed now for the future.

“So, I’m sure he will work on it to get things right for this year.”

Hamilton’s tenure at Ferrari is reported to be starting with four days of testing with an older Ferrari at Fiorano and Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya this month, before the new car – dubbed Project 677 – is revealed next month ahead of official pre-season testing in Bahrain.

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Eddie Jordan: If I was Ferrari, I’d find a way out of Lewis Hamilton deal

Former F1 team boss Eddie Jordan is one name unconvinced of Hamilton remaining at his best, with the Irishman saying Hamilton’s own admission of doubting his speed was all the evidence he needed to hear.

“If you don’t believe 100 percent, you’re f**ked. Do you understand that?” Jordan said on the Formula For Success podcast.

“Because belief, 99.9 percent, means that there is that tiny, little, little thing in there knocking on your head that gives you the things that maybe, ‘Oh, I don’t really have that confidence. I don’t really have the ability’.

“And at the moment what I heard from Lewis, I’m not fast enough anymore, they were the words, I think.

“Honestly, if I was Ferrari, I would say close the book, find the way out. That’s it.”

Those comments caused quite a bit of backlash, Jordan revealed on a later podcast, who explained his rationale further afterward.

“Oh, my God, I got such s**t over me saying that I thought Lewis should not be going to Ferrari because of what he said,” he said.

“And when people say things like, ‘I don’t think I’m fast enough anymore’, I mean, that registers in my head.

“Psychologically, I’m such a person, yes I believe in talent, yes I believe in performance, and yes, I believe in speed, but I’m a psychological person. I like to know what’s going on inside that brain.

“Because I think fundamentally, what’s going on in there very often gets replicated back in the job or the issues that you’re doing, and whether that’s driving a car, a truck, a train, a crane, it doesn’t matter. It’s how you approach the moment.”