Lewis Hamilton faces critical F1 2026 crossroads as Button drops retirement tease
Lewis Hamilton's F1 2026 results will decide his future in the sport
Jenson Button believes Lewis Hamilton’s results next season will be the deciding factor in whether he continues racing for Ferrari in 2027, or calls time on his Formula 1 career.
Hamilton joined Ferrari at the beginning of this season, with his switch from Mercedes to the Scuderia dominating the pre-season headlines.
‘Or a Lewis Hamilton that’s maybe going to walk away…’
Despite talk of a record-breaking eighth World title to speculation in the Italian media that Ferrari had found half a second with the SF-25, Hamilton and Ferrari’s dream quickly dimmed.
Although the Briton did record a lights-to-flag win at the Sprint in China, after which Hamilton blasted his critics for “yapping along the way”, that has been the total sum of his season’s high notes.
So much so, Hamilton went from calling out his critics, to criticising Ferrari’s strategies and the lack of upgrades for the SF-25 to becoming his own worst critic as he said Ferrari should “change” drivers as he was “useless”.
Hamilton went on to say: “Hopefully I will be back [after the summer break].”
The Briton did return to the grid at the Dutch Grand Prix, the first race after the annual F1 holiday, having defiantly declared that the “fight’s not over, don’t count me out”.
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But as his wait for a first grand prix win/podium continued after round 18 of the championship, the Singapore Grand Prix, his former teammate Jenson Button conceded that it could take Hamilton all year to be fully embedded as a Ferrari driver.
“I think we’ve seen some brilliance through the year. I take it all the way back to the Shanghai Sprint, which was very impressive,” he told Sky Sports.
“He has said he felt comfortable with the car, that what the car was doing, but it’s not consistent enough through the year for him to have that confidence in the car.
“He doesn’t have his team of people around him like he’s had for many years, racing with Mercedes as a World Champion.
“It does take a bit of time.”
But fans needn’t worry that he’ll throw in the towel after his debut campaign in red as an all-new formula awaits next season with F1 putting new cars and engines on the grid.
Button reckons Hamilton will first see how that goes before deciding whether or not he’ll continue with Ferrari in F1 2027.
“With the new regulation change, which is massive for next year, that’s when we’re going to see either Lewis at his best, or a Lewis that’s maybe going to walk away,” said the 2009 World Champion.
Last year, Hamilton signed a multi-year contract with Ferrari, one that was reportedly for two years with an option for a third that only he, according to a report, can decide to exercise or not.
According to F1-Insider, the respected Italian publication La Gazzetta dello Sport has suggested that Hamilton’s contract contains a ‘controversial’ clause that will potentially allow him to stay for the 2027 campaign.
It means Hamilton’s future will lie ‘entirely in his hands’, giving Ferrari ‘little say’ on the seven-time World Champion’s future even if he continues to underperform.
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