Ralf Schumacher gives retirement ultimatum to Lewis Hamilton over Ferrari disaster

Ralf Schumacher believes that Lewis Hamilton would retire from Formula 1 earlier than expected amidst woeful Ferrari debut.

Ralf Schumacher gives retirement ultimatum to Lewis Hamilton over Ferrari disaster

Lewis Hamilton (via Ferrari), Ralf Schumacher (via IMAGO)

Lewis Hamilton‘s highly anticipated debut with Ferrari in the 2025 season has been nothing short of a disaster. The Briton is unable to contend for the race wins and has not amassed any impressive results in the first five races. Hamilton could only manage to achieve a sprint win under his belt despite Ferrari’s decent-looking pace. Hence, ex-F1 driver Ralf Schumacher has waged his opinions on the seven-time champion’s disastrous stint with the Scuderia.

Lewis Hamilton remained optimistic about his chances to score well with Ferrari despite a woeful start to the year. Hamilton still berated the mediocre pace of the SF-25 challenger that caused him to lose crucial time on track. Moreover, Fred Vasseur wholly supports the 40-year-old during his trying times with the Italian constructor. Ralf Schumacher seems indifferent to his opinions on the seven-time champion’s recent results with the team.

Schumacher believes that if Ferrari fails to improve performance by the coming races, Hamilton will make a critical decision on his future with the team. The Italian constructor must ensure improvements in pace as soon as possible to retain the Briton’s interest in the team. The German reckoned that at some point in the near future, the 40-year-old is going to hang up his suit and end his career at the pinnacle of motorsport.

Hamilton would soon decide to quit the team and give up on the sport, as he might not be able to achieve his record-breaking eighth title win with Ferrari. Schumacher claimed that the 40-year-old would want to live his life at some point apart from Formula 1. The German funnily pointed out that the seven-time champion had made more than enough money to now enjoy his retirement from an early age.

If it continues like this, there is a risk that at some point Lewis will say ‘I don’t want all this anymore, I want to live my life, I’m 40 years old and I’m so rich that I don’t want to do this anymore’.

Ralf Schumacher told FormulaPassion

Ralf Schumacher claims Lewis Hamilton ‘worse’ than Lando Norris

Lando Norris has kept up with performances as compared to Lewis Hamilton. However, the former makes major mistakes on track that have caused him to lose out on the drivers’ title lead to Oscar Piastri early on. Ralf Schumacher reckoned that Hamilton’s woeful form in recent races was even worse than Norris’ blunders.

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

Schumacher asserted that Hamilton couldn’t manage to handle the Ferrari challenger and its quirks. The German believed that people belittled Norris but did not focus on the 40-year-old and his struggles. The ex-F1 driver did not hesitate to claim that the seven-time champion was somewhat worse than Lando Norris. The 49-year-old further noted that Lewis Hamilton was bound to lose everything he had achieved so far if he fell and was unable to find improvements in his results.

Lewis Hamilton can’t manage the Ferrari. We talk a lot about Lando Norris, but with him it’s almost worse. You can see it, it’s really down. If at some point you are there and you have no more resources and you are getting slower, then you lose everything.

Ralf Schumacher noted

Ferrari is still working hard on improving their pace for the latter stages of the 2025 season. Hamilton remains confident in his capabilities and refuses to give up too soon. Only time will tell about how the final season of the ground-effect era pans out for the 40-year-old in his debut season with Maranello. As things are, the seven-time champion is in for a rude awakening if the team does not find considerable improvements soon enough.