Lewis Hamilton is no Fernando Alonso: Is it time to retire from Formula 1?

The curious case that is Lewis Hamilton. Every time it feels like calmer Ferrari waters have been found, another storm is around the corner.

The latest example? Las Vegas, where Hamilton somehow managed to take it beyond this year, and give Ferrari reason to doubt the big hope that is F1 2026. Not every driver can outrun father time like Fernando Alonso. It now feels like it is in Hamilton’s best interests that he decides his time is up.

Time for Lewis Hamilton to bow out and receive his flowers

Results have not lived up to the hype, and it came after tasting defeat to George Russell in his final Mercedes season. Questions were already being asked about whether Hamilton still had it.

Alarm bells were ringing four races in when the seven-time champion of the world told PlanetF1.com and other media outlet  that “I’m just not doing a good enough job.”

One of Formula 1’s most respected voices, Martin Brundle, moved to defend Hamilton’s current ability.

“My experience is that different things go [with age],” said the Sky F1 pundit. “I noticed my eyes going at Le Mans, for example, at night.

“I think Sebastian Vettel lost a bit of peripheral vision, for example, if I think at the end of his career.

“So I wouldn’t say there’s one size fits all on that, but I just still feel that age is not Lewis’s problem. I really don’t think he’s lost any vision or he’s lost any kind of driving ability as such.”

So the narrative was that Hamilton was struggling to unlearn 18 years worth of F1 lessons. There was an “alien” driving style to learn with the Ferrari, he said. We are still waiting.

Sure, things have been better after the summer break.

Sure, the pace of the Ferrari has not consistently been what it was during part one.

Yet Charles Leclerc on the other side of the garage has pumped in seven podiums, Hamilton zero.

As a seven-time world champion, perhaps anything less than a car capable of clinching title number eight fails to get Hamilton’s juices flowing.

But let’s face it, the Hamilton of old would be doing far better than zero podiums to Leclerc’s seven if that version was still there. Performing well is not optional at this level.

We saw flashes in the 2022 and ’23 Mercedes years when the title was off limits. But, alas, flashes. China was the one Ferrari flash.

‘I can be as good once as I ever was,’ the saying goes. Once does not cut it in Formula 1.

But Ferrari… such a culture shift is hard for any racer to adapt to. Thirteen-time grand prix winner David Coulthard was not having it.

“I struggle to buy into the whole change your culture. It’s a race car, right, left, throttle, brake,” he said on Channel 4.

“Yes, there’s another way of terminology, but a power unit is a power unit. Downforce is downforce. When you break this sport down to its simplest forms, it’s about human and machine, and the very best at their peak are able to master that.

“So the question is, and I’m going to say it, is he past his peak?”

It is getting harder and harder to argue that Hamilton is not.

After all, not everyone is Fernando Alonso.

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Still going strong at 44, Alonso is widely regarded to still be at the peak of his powers as he eyes up one final title push with Aston Martin.

Of course, even Alonso has not been properly tested at the sharp end of the grid since 2023.

It could be argued that Alonso has changed the timescale perception for a top F1 talent. But he remains an outlier.

Think Sebastian Vettel, a four-time world champion, who arguably passed his best as his mid 30s approached.

Michael Schumacher, the only other seven-time champion alongside Hamilton, retired at 37 and returned in his 40s far from the driver he once was.

Simply put, Hamilton would not be the first to expire before 40.

But his situation, admittedly, is unique. He felt robbed of a record eighth title in 2021 and perhaps that pursuit of history and redemption has seen him carry on too long.

Talking about “not looking forward” to next season, as he did after Las Vegas, while said in the heat of the moment post-race, still adds to the growing feeling of discomfort around Hamilton.

When he does call time, he should be, and still would be, remembered and celebrated as the most successful, and perhaps influential, driver F1 has ever seen.

But the longer this goes on, the more that this Ferrari “nightmare” – as he also has termed it – risks becoming a permanent stain on his legacy.

F1 2026 is meant to be the big hope for Hamilton and Ferrari with the new regulations coming.

Hamilton wins that record eighth title, Ferrari ends its drought and a storybook ending is written.

Instead, looking ahead with such a deflated attitude hardly inspires optimism.

It must also be stressed that from what we have seen in F1 2025, if Ferrari is to have its first drivers’ champion since 2007 next year, that is going to be Leclerc, not Hamilton.

Ferrari would not be stuck.

Bearman has gone from strength to strength in his rookie year and is increasingly cementing his status as a Ferrari driver in waiting.

To lose a figure like Hamilton would send shockwaves through Formula 1, but almost more painful than that thought is the sight of watching this legend struggle on.

It is time.

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