Lewis Hamilton called the Spanish Grand Prix his ‘worst ever race’. The Italian media weren’t so kind.
Even after a season low around Barcelona, the seven-time champion has had more problems to deal with, particularly if he’s passing through Milan and opens up a copy of Corriere della Sera.
GettyHamilton called Spain his worst race, and the Italian media agree with him[/caption]
Hamilton finished sixth in Spain last time out which sounds bad, but it’s even worse when you factor him getting overtaken by Nico Hulkenberg driving the slowest car on the grid in the closing stages.
The result came with teammate Charles Leclerc ending up on the podium in third, and with the Monagasque now 8-1 up on his British colleague in Grand Prix results, the editorials are starting.
Giorgio Terruzzi of Corriere della Serra covered Hamilton’s latest struggles in brutal fashion, saying he’s ‘beaten and dejected’.
“On the track, in radio communications, in the interviews he has to give by contract, even if he would like to run away, to lock himself away, Lewis Hamilton is a dull star,” he wrote.
“He cannot keep up with Leclerc’s pace; he seems suspended between the search for the magic powder and the suspicion of being surrounded by a team that does not understand him and does not support him.
“There are too many admirers transformed into merciless accusers and, after only nine races, we are witnessing a love story – if not compromised – in full crisis.”
The editorial went further, though, not just attacking Hamilton as ‘annoying’ but comparing him unfavourably to arch nemesis Max Verstappen.
“Sixth, with Leclerc back on the podium, enough to transform his mannerisms, clothes, hairstyles, from amazing to annoying,” Terruzzi wrote.
“It is a shame to be here listing the broken promises of a champion who made history.
“Verstappen remains the superman of this F1; Hamilton is a man who has lost his super powers.
“He remains in the game, exposed, in front of an audience that he himself has kept on champagne.”
The seven-time champion’s record-breaking eighth world title is now looking further away than ever, and with all things considered, his old team Mercedes may be best-placed to exploit the new 2026 regulation changes.
In an attempt to explain why the move hasn’t worked so far, rival Rome outlet went slightly kinder on Hamilton, putting it down to a transition away from normality.
“Entering a Latin team is not a foregone conclusion,” Fulvio Solms wrote.
“If you have spent an entire career in Anglo-Saxon realities [Mercedes and McLaren], the work systems are very different from each other
“The absence of a winning and stable car does not help. And we are also told that the transition from the Brackley simulator to the one in Maranello was shocking for Hamilton, still looking for an ubi consistam [Latin for point of reference].”
Italy’s leading outlet, La Gazzetta dello Sport, are similarly unimpressed, saying Hamilton is now just left with excuses as other drivers have adapted to their new teams far quicker.
“He expects a winning car from Ferrari and Ferrari is waiting for him,” they wrote.
“Considering that for a year [team principal] Fred Vasseur has been praising the prospect of a new inspiration coming [from Hamilton], a vision of the work that would enrich the Scuderia.
“Vasseur defends him tooth and nail, and of course: he brought him. But it is bitter to note that Hamilton did not expect this Ferrari, nor did Ferrari expect this Hamilton.”
Yet their Formula 1 writer, Louis Perna, thinks the team is to blame, even with Hamilton’s struggles.
“The cure for Ferrari’s ills is nowhere to be found,” he wrote.
“After the proclamations of the winter, lived in the illusion that the arrival of the English champion would have started a cycle of triumphs.
“The turning point, however, has not come, on the contrary. The Prancing Horse has lost the momentum with which it had competed for the constructors’ world championship against McLaren at the end of last season.
“Given the conditions, 2025 is increasingly taking on the contours of a major failure for team principal Frederic Vasseur, who had echoed the wishes of president John Elkann by guaranteeing that Ferrari would fight for the drivers’ and constructors’ world championships.
“Perhaps the prospects for the future of Ferrari would be different if Vasseur had convinced the genius Adrian Newey [who joined Aston Martin] to embrace the red cause, after the divorce with Red Bull.
“One man alone cannot change the fate of a team of a thousand people, but he can show the way.”
Maybe Newey could’ve done it, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that countryman Hamilton can’t…
