F1 News: Heidfeld says age starting to slow Lewis Hamilton

(GMM) Age is clearly showing in 40-year old Lewis Hamilton’s on-track performances, according to former Formula 1 driver Nick Heidfeld.

After narrowly – and in some people’s eyes, unfairly – losing to Max Verstappen in the 2021 world championship, Hamilton’s results and pace have stagnated.

The seven time world champion freely admits that he has not enjoyed the post-2021 ground effect era – and is also not looking forward to the radically-different 2026 cars, either.

“I don’t think, personally, it’s going in the right direction,” Hamilton, 40, told Sky Italia.

“We’re going slower, the cars are heavier. Next year they’ll be lighter, but they’re still the heaviest I’ve driven.”

Hamilton did enough in his fallow post-2021 Mercedes years to secure a lucrative switch to Ferrari for this season – but his adaptation so far has been slow.

“I think there’s more coming,” Heidfeld, working with Sky Deutschland, said in Monaco on a rare visit to the F1 paddock.

“If the car suits him, he can still perform at his best. We saw that in China. But compared to (Charles) Leclerc, he’s currently lagging behind – especially in qualifying,” he told Sport1.

Nick Heidfeld (L) was teammates with Sebastian Vettel (R) back in 2006 and 2007 with the BMW Sauber team. Photo courtesy of Sauber

The German, 48, doesn’t think Hamilton has lost his talent. Rather, he simply thinks the years are beginning to take their toll.

“Even if some people don’t like to hear it, he’s not the youngest anymore,” said Heidfeld. “If you compare him to the Hamilton of five or ten years ago, you can clearly see the differences.”

However, Heidfeld says Hamilton’s post-40 years are not directly comparable with the similarly unspectacular final years of fellow seven-time title winner Michael Schumacher’s career.

“Not quite,” he said. “Michael was out for several years, while Lewis has kept going.

“But it shows that after many years in the same environment, a team change is difficult. Lewis was perfectly integrated at Mercedes – now he has to get used to a new car. And the older you get, the harder it is to make a fresh start.”

Hamilton’s arrival at Maranello was at the expense of Carlos Sainz, who Heidfeld nominates as the biggest surprise of the 2025 season so far.

“I was surprised that he went to a weaker team like Williams,” he said. “But together they’ve improved tremendously.”