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Lewis Hamilton had a dream run at the British GP, as he beat intense competition to win his first race in 945 days. A driver who had a record of winning a race every season was going through his worst career patch, going winless in 2022 and 2023. Success had deserted him, and while his teammate has won two races in the ground effect era, Hamilton had nothing to show for it, before Silverstone.
By the time the chequered flag fell on the British GP, a couple of things seemed clear. The first is that Lewis Hamilton isn't past his prime. That's not a discussion anyone should or would have after watching the race. There was, however, another thing that was possibly a tad worrying for him.
Lewis Hamilton is at Mercedes right now and is performing brilliantly. The problem for him is that he won't be a part of this team for long. At the end of the season, he will join Ferrari.
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Now contrary to the kind of weekend Hamilton had, Ferrari had a disaster. Not only were the Italian team the fourth-fastest, but in incredulous scenes, Charles Leclerc lapped around Silverstone on intermediate tyres on a dry track.
Lewis Hamilton will party until the sun comes up and celebrate the win in Silverstone. There would, however, be a part of him who would be worried about the future, one that involves Ferrari.
Ferrari are still the same
For anyone who has been following Ferrari since 2008, there are a few things that have always stood out about them. The team gets too excited when things start falling into place. They have a habit of throwing the kitchen sink at the problem every time.
Strategic prowess is one area where the team have struggled and continue to do so. During a season, they tend to take a step back instead of moving forward. You look at the 2024 season, and you might as well tick all these boxes. They won in Monaco with Charles Leclerc, and that was arguably the peak.
Since then, they have had two mega-hyped upgrade packages brought to the car, which have had minimal impact. Finally, their strategic acumen is probably the worst of the entire grid at this stage. This is a team that has gone from being the second-fastest to fourth-fastest right now.
What's worse is that Fred Vasseur's Ferrari have started to look like the same team that was led by his predecessors Mattia Binotto, Maurizio Arrivabene and Stefano Domenicali.
Mercedes are growing from strength to strength
On the contrary, the team Lewis Hamilton is leaving at the end of the season is surging to a level that it used to perform in pre-2022. This is arguably the first time in the ground effect era that Mercedes have been on this brilliant run.
The operational side is working perfectly. Both drivers are extracting the best possible results from the car, and the team have scored two pole positions and have had two wins in the last four races. Are Mercedes back to being a frontrunner? Possibly yes.
Are they back to being the best team on the grid? Not yet, but the trajectory is encouraging. One of the major reasons why Lewis Hamilton's interest was piqued at Ferrari was because of the latency in the German squad.
They hadn't listened to what he'd said, and in his view, what he had seen, he didn't think the future was bright. That has turned on its head now, and Mercedes look every bit F1's frontrunning team that it used to be a few years back.
The 2026 regulations conundrum
Finally, the biggest question for Lewis Hamilton has to be whether the gamble he has made by committing to Ferrari is the right one for 2026.
To answer it, one can't help but look back at the track record of the team in the last decade or so. The Italian team haven't been the benchmark even once when we've had such a major overhaul.
The 2014 season saw Mercedes drown the competition. The 2022 season also saw the challenge from the Italian team falter. At this rate, the 2025 season won't see a Ferrari title challenge, so how can we assume that there's going to be something big coming up in 2026?
For any team to be well-placed to fight at the front and win, the momentum needs to be there. Ferrari don't have it in 2024, and at this stage, it appears that culturally the team haven't let go of the DNA that has hurt their very foundations for long.
The Ferrari think-tank
Finally, in a major blow to Ferrari's future is the supposed brain drain. Recently, it has been announced that Enrico Cardille is leaving the team and most probably joining Aston Martin.
There are even reports that Ferrari are no longer interested in pursuing Adrian Newey because the interest hasn't been reciprocated. That leaves us with the question of who's going to be the technical director of the team? What's this super team going to look like?
What's the long-term prospect? More importantly, is there a plan in place? And if there is, how long will this plan take to come to fruition?
The stark reality for Lewis Hamilton
At the start of the season, Lewis Hamilton's decision to join Ferrari looked like a masterstroke. There were many who thought that Fred Vasseur was going to change the team from the ground up.
As it turns out, the Ferrari project is not in a good shape. It's not a different team. And unfortunately, the team Hamilton is leaving is back on the positive trajectory. You combine all of that and what you have is a prospect where Hamilton might just have enjoyed every bit of his win in Silverstone.
There was, however, a moment when he sat down after all the partying and watched how Charles Leclerc's race unfolded. Lewis Hamilton wouldn't want to be on a dry track with a wet tyre at any moment. If that's what happened to the lead driver in the Italian team, Hamilton should be worried about what the future holds for him.
