Ex-F1 Champion Blames Lewis Hamilton’s Self Doubt over Ferrari Struggles

Jacques Villeneuve believes that if Lewis Hamilton keeps on doubting himself at Ferrari, he will fail to succeed in the latest chapter of his career.

Ex-F1 Champion Blames Lewis Hamilton’s Self Doubt over Ferrari Struggles

Lewis Hamilton (via Planetf1)

Lewis Hamilton‘s debut with Ferrari in the 2025 season has been extremely disappointing as he has failed to amass any notable results. The Briton only achieved one sprint win out of the first six races and hasn’t scored any podium finishes. Now, the 40-year-old is cutting short his personal time and spending time at the Ferrari factory to find any improvements possible in the SF-24 challenger. Former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve has guessed the reasons behind the seven-time champion’s trying times in recent days.

Rumors have started to come up about Lewis Hamilton seeking an early exit from Ferrari if the performance doesn’t improve anytime soon. However, the 40-year-old has assured that he is ready to rebuild himself within the Italian constructor and return to his winning ways. Hamilton also might not have regained the confidence in himself after the massive performance struggles at Mercedes in his final years.

Jacques Villeneuve pointed out that Lewis Hamilton still brought a lot to Ferrari in terms of positive image. As such, there weren’t any issues regarding the poor image of the Briton being built. However, Hamilton’s future also depended on how much he started to doubt himself in the wake of performance struggles. The Canadian asserted that the 40-year-old will find it very difficult to recover if he starts to doubt himself too much without him being at fault.

Lewis still brings a lot of image to the team, so I don’t see any issues just yet. It’s how much he starts doubting that’s the problem. If he starts doubting too much, then it will be hard to recover.

Jacques Villeneuve told Vision4Sport

Villeneuve recalled Hamilton’s incessant struggles with Mercedes in his final years, which might cause him self-doubt. The Canadian highlights that the 40-year-old was ‘protected’ at Brackley, which isn’t the case this time around with Ferrari. The Briton is now being exposed to all new possibilities with the Italian constructor as he finds difficulties in how to react to those situations. Still, with time, the seven-time champion will be accustomed to the ways and start performing well and contend for race wins finally.

He spent all those years at Mercedes, overly protected. And that seemed at the time to have been a necessity. Now he is not used to being exposed, and he doesn’t know how to react to it particularly well. I guess he wasn’t expecting what had happened at all.

Jacques Villeneuve added

Jacques Villeneuve reckons Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari move a ‘continuity of Mercedes’

Lewis Hamilton’s final few years with Mercedes were extremely difficult and chaotic which pushed him to jump ship to Ferrari. The 40-year-old hoped for a fresh start with the Italian constructor and fight for either the championships down the year. However, as things are, Hamilton is rendered unable to contend for either of the championships. Now, Jacques Villeneuve raised a massive point of concern for the Briton’s time at Maranello.

Fred Vasseur, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc (via Motorsport Week)
Fred Vasseur, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc (via Motorsport Week)

Jacques Villeneuve recalled that everything went wrong after Lewis Hamilton lost the drivers’ title to Max Verstappen in 2021. The Canadian labeled those difficult years as ‘draining’ for Hamilton, as he was unable to score results great enough to remain relevant. As such, the shift to Ferrari was supposed to be exciting and something new, which is evident, is not. Now, the one-time champion believes that the 40-year-old’s switch in teams turned out to be a ‘continuity’ of his time at Mercedes.

It’s very draining because Lewis Hamilton had a few bad years at Mercedes that were draining; the championship loss to Max Verstappen, that’s when it started, The new Ferrari was supposed to be exciting and fun, and it was with that sprint race. Then suddenly it’s a continuity of the last few years at Mercedes.

Jacques Villeneuve noted

The 2025 season is still six races with 18 more races to go. While Hamilton is facing extreme struggles, Ferrari is continuing to build itself and working hard to improve their pace against the rivals. The Italian constructor still has a massive gap in pace to be covered soon in order to remain competitive down the line. Now, it is up to the Scuderia to decide the 40-year-old’s continuity with them beyond his current contract expiration in the end of the 2026 season.

Read More: Ex-F1 Champion Hits out at Lando Norris’ ‘Nice Guy’ Aim in F1