F1 News: It appears Ferrari has signed a washed-up Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes F1 driver Lewis Hamilton, who signed to drive for Ferrari in 2025 with much fanfare, said “I’m definitely not fast anymore” after his latest disappointing qualifying performance left him seventh on the grid for Saturday afternoon’s Qatar GP Sprint.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

In a year in which he has consistently been outperformed over a single lap by teammate George Russell, Hamilton is beginning to realize age has caught up with him.

Russell holds a 22-6 head-to-head advantage in Sprint and GP qualifying this year.

“It was the same as every other qualifying, not that great,” said Hamilton, who lapped 0.299s slower than second-placed Russell in SQ3 having trailed his British teammate in all three Sprint Qualifying segments.

“I’m just slow. Same every weekend. The car felt relatively decent.

“No issues. Not really much more to say,” added Hamilton.

“The long run didn’t feel too bad, but when you’re always back where I am, it makes it very hard to be competing for – well almost impossible pretty much – to be competing for wins from there. But that’s the sprint. I’ll do what I can tomorrow.”

Asked if the reset for qualifying on Saturday night at the Lusail International Circuit would offer him a chance to do better, Hamilton said: “Not particularly, no. I mean, the positive is that the car is fast, and George should be out to shoot for pole tomorrow.”

Leading some to ask, did Lewis Hamilton win most of his F1 race and F1 titles when Mercedes had a 50 to 100hp advantage? Was he overrated all along?