Contract Clause Could Explain Hamilton’s Struggle
APRIL 28, 2025
Lewis Hamilton’s move from Mercedes to Ferrari has been one of the most high-profile transfers in Formula 1 history, but the seven-time world champion’s current struggles have raised eyebrows among fans and pundits alike. According to sources close to the team, a contractual clause inserted into Hamilton’s agreement with Ferrari could be a key factor in his adaptation difficulties.
The clause, reported by Corriere dello Sport, prevents Ferrari from contacting anyone at Mercedes about Hamilton’s move to the Italian team. This has left Hamilton isolated from his former team, forcing him to work with unfamiliar engineers and abandoning the support of old acquaintances. As former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher noted, "Lewis seems desperate and confused, both in what he says and in his body language."
Italian F1 technical journalist Paolo Filisetti, writing in La Gazzetta dello Sport, believes that Hamilton’s decline has coincided with an increase in form and comfort for his teammate, Charles Leclerc. "His (Leclerc’s) statements at the end of the race highlighted how his driving with the SF-25 was now becoming automatic, allowing him to extract the maximum potential from the car," Filisetti wrote. Meanwhile, Leclerc’s comfort and familiarity with the car have raised questions about Ferrari’s strategy and whether they should focus on developing the 2025 car in Leclerc’s direction.
As reported by GrandPrix.com, some insiders are predicting that Hamilton’s performance has been so alarming recently that he could announce his retirement as early as mid-season. However, Valtteri Bottas, Hamilton’s former Mercedes teammate and now reserve driver, believes that adapting to a new team is a challenging but manageable process. "It is clearly a big change, after a long experience like his with Mercedes, working with the same people," Bottas told the Italian portal automoto.it. "At Ferrari it is a totally different culture – an Italian one – compared to the Anglo-German one at Mercedes."
Bottas, who made a similar transition from Mercedes to the Ferrari-powered Sauber team, believes that the differences between teams are not as significant as they seem. "I don’t think the differences are that big, apart from something minor regarding driveability," he explained. "The most complicated part is the basics, since even the names for things are different. But after that it can be managed without too much difficulty." However, Bottas also acknowledged that working with different people is a significant challenge. "The most difficult thing about changing teams is working with different people," he said. "Ultimately, this sport is about human performance – teamwork. You really have to understand the people you work with. How to give your best and get the same out of them."
According to GrandPrix.com, Filisetti thinks that Ferrari could be at a crossroads, where efforts to help Hamilton acclimatise could shift to aggressively developing the 2025 car in Leclerc’s direction. As the Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport claims, the contractual clause affecting Hamilton’s move from Mercedes to Ferrari could help explain the British driver’s adaptation to life at the wheel of a Maranello-made cockpit. "A clause inserted in the agreement prevents Ferrari from contacting anyone at Mercedes about going to Ferrari," the newspaper reports. "Lewis Hamilton has therefore been totally isolated from the German team, leaving him to interface only with unfamiliar engineers without the possibility of help from old acquaintances."
Source: https://www.grandprix.com/news/contract-clause-could-explain-hamilton-struggle.html
