Racing Icon Declares Ferrari Signed Lewis Hamilton Too Early for 2025

Former F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya insisted that if Ferrari was patient enough, they wouldn't have signed Lewis Hamilton.

Racing Icon Declares Ferrari Signed Lewis Hamilton Too Early for 2025

Lewis Hamilton and Fred Vasseur (via Reuters)

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Lewis Hamilton and Scuderia Ferrari joined forces earlier this year. This pairing was supposed to bring glory back to Maranello. The seven-time world champion hoped to guide the Italian team back to the front of the grid. However, after half a season, Hamilton and Ferrari are struggling to perform. Now, former F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya has pointed out that perhaps the team decided to sign the Briton in haste.

The seven-time world champion signed a massive contract with Ferrari at the start of 2024. Maranello announced the move even before pre-season testing. This had surprised many in the paddock considering there was a whole season left before Lewis Hamilton would leave Mercedes. He was set to replace Carlos Sainz.

Juan Pablo Montoya reckoned that one reason why Ferrari went with Lewis Hamilton was Carlos Sainz’s struggles. In 2022, the Spanish driver was no match to teammate Charles Leclerc, raising doubts within Maranello. Even at the time of Hamilton’s deal, Sainz was still facing issues at the Italian team. Although, later down the season, he started to pick up pace and improved his results.

If you look at Carlos’s first year at Ferrari, it wasn’t good. In fact, when they decided to sign Hamilton, Carlos was still having problems. Only afterwards did he start performing well.

Juan Pablo Montoya said on MontoyAS

Montoya asserted that if Ferrari had taken its time on deciding its line-up for 2025, they would’ve seen Sainz’s improvements. He claimed that the Scuderia might’ve had no reason to sign Lewis Hamilton then. Patience is a key factor in Formula 1 and in this case, Maranello simply had none. Albeit, Hamilton also brings commercial benefits to the team.

If it had been a year later, [Ferrari] might not have gone for Hamilton because Carlos was already doing better. So you need patience. It’s not easy.

Juan Pablo Montoya explained

Lewis Hamilton in disagreement with Ferrari engineers

The British driver joined Ferrari after spending over a decade at Mercedes. Back at Brackley, Lewis Hamilton felt at home with the car being in-sync with his driving style. However, he has failed to adapt to Ferrari machinery. Hamilton is constantly trying to improve and is even sending documents to his team over the issues. Though, this has still not help fix the problems.

Lewis Hamilton (via Ferrari)
Lewis Hamilton in the Ferrari garage (via Scuderia Ferrari)

Montoya asserted that Lewis Hamilton has been driving in one particular way for several years. His driving style has indeed worked like a charm as he has seven world championships. However, according to the Columbian, engineers at Maranello are demanding Hamilton to drive differently.

Hamilton has been driving a certain way for many years, and it works. The problem is that many engineers are saying, ‘No, this car needs to be driven differently, this car needs something else.’ But that car isn’t exactly good either.

Juan Pablo Montoya added

Lewis Hamilton currently faces one of the lowest points of his career. The seven-time world champion has failed to grab even a single podium finish so far this season. The Briton has even called himself absolutely useless for the team. Nevertheless, the Tifosi would hope to see Hamilton make some improvements after the summer break.

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