In the final races of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes career, there was a last day of Rome feeling.

The relationship was over, both parties had found another. Performances waned, enthusiasm fell through the floor and Hamilton looked like a man ticking down the seconds until the season was over.

Australia F1 2025 was Lewis Hamilton’s worst season opener since 2014

Hamilton’s form at the end of 2024 coupled with him turning 40 in January produced some contemplative questions.

Washed. Lost it. Worse than his team-mate. These were all some of the accusations thrown at him while his defenders said life had become too stale at Mercedes, too familiar.

It was a topic Hamilton spoke about. Ferrari was not just a chance to drive for F1’s most famous team but a new direction in life. New surroundings, new colleagues and a new fan base. If Hamilton’s career had fallen into a malaise, there was the belief that his move to Ferrari would provide a much-needed breath of fresh air.

All the signs were there. Social media posts from outside Maranello, dressed in a smart black suit with a vintage Ferrari behind him. The first laps at Fiorano. Wearing Ferrari red for the first time on a race weekend. All pre-season, Hamilton has smiled much more than he did last year. He spoke of his first FP1 with Ferrari, his first race weekend and his first time with the fans at the track.

But Formula 1 has no time for sentimentality. The fairytale story of the sport’s most successful driver moving to the sport’s most successful team would result in Ferrari’s first title since 2007, Hamilton’s first since 2020 and a record-breaking eighth.

One race in though, and the silver may have turned to red but Hamilton’s Australian Grand Prix performance was all too familiar.

The warning signs came in quali. The Maranello squad were not just far off leaders McLaren but the fourth quickest on the grid at best. Both finished behind a Williams and a Racing Bulls. Hamilton was two-tenths off his team-mate, something he took as a positive but that admission is hard to imagine his younger self ever saying.

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But while Leclerc made good ground early on in the race, Hamilton was stuck behind Alex Albon for almost half of it. Credit should go to the Williams driver’s defence excellence but would a peak Hamilton have stayed behind for so long. Would Leclerc? Would Verstappen? Would Norris?

It is not that Hamilton has lost all his talent but more that a pacifism has crept into his driving style. The 105-time race winner needed a safety car and rain chaos to make any moves up the grid and even then, it resulted with him further down the grid than before.

Hamilton’s frustration was clear for all to see in his communications with race engineer Riccardo Adami. If he had been the perfect guest at his new Ferrari home so far, by the end of the race he was swearing down the microphone. Blaming the team for a missed opportunity,

The Briton’s miserable day in Melbourne was capped off when Oscar Piasti, a man who had spent what seemed like a year in the grass, overtook him in the final lap to push Hamilton down to 10th.

It is Hamilton’s worst season opener since 2014 and only serves to pose more existential questions about who Lewis Hamilton now is. Is he the driver that won all those titles? Or is he the version that we saw for all too long at Mercedes?

Writing off a driver with the pedigree of Hamilton after one race at a new team would be foolish endeavour but any hope of a quick return to form has been extinguished with another humbling performance.

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