Lewis Hamilton’s Worst Ever Finishes in the F1 World Drivers’ Championship
When people are asked who the greatest driver in the history of Formula One is, plenty will answer Lewis Hamilton. The British superstar has won a joint-record seven world championships throughout his illustrious career – a number tied with the iconic Michael Schumacher. However, the twilight years of his career haven’t been easy.
Following the controversial ending to his record-breaking eighth world championship challenge at Abu Dhabi 2021, it’s been a downward spiral for the living legend. Three painful years at Mercedes were bad enough, but the recent move to Ferrari has Hamilton doing something he hasn’t done throughout his entire career: Questioning himself.
Hamilton’s Ferrari Woes
Few, if any, could have envisioned 2025 unfolding so bleakly for the GOAT. A marquee move to Ferrari was supposed to ignite the latter stages of his career and power him towards the immortal number eight. However, his stint in scarlet red has instead illuminated the depths of motorsport’s cruel realities. As the season careens toward its close, the greatest driver of his generation finds himself not at the helm of the title fight but mired in a campaign shadowed by disappointment, frustration, and an unspooling narrative of missed potential.
Two drivers that are embroiled in a titanic title battle for the ages are the McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, with online betting sites barely able to split the two in their odds lists. One can now bet on sports at Lucky Rebel, and the upstart betting site has the current championship leader Piastri listed as a narrow -175 betting favourite courtesy of his nine-point championship advantage, with the more experienced Norris just behind at +130. But for Hamilton, he has his work cut out simply avoiding his worst-ever finish in the championship standings.
Fourteen races. Zero podiums. A new, jarring watermark: 12th at the Hungarian Grand Prix. “I’m useless, absolutely useless,” Hamilton told the media after that Budapest disaster, his candor as striking as any radio outburst heard across his career. The Hungarian weekend didn’t just bring a poor finish; it became a symbol of a broader malaise—a chasm between expectation and reality.
Currently, Hamilton sits sixth in the Drivers’ Championship, 42 points adrift of Charles Leclerc and a jaw-dropping 175 points from the runaway McLaren of Piastri. The shocking stats are the latest punctuation mark on a campaign defined by inconsistency—one littered with scruffy qualifying laps, missed Q3s, and a Ferrari SF-25 that has proved a volatile companion. For all the red banners and tifosi optimism, Maranello’s signature allure has, thus far, failed to unlock Hamilton’s best.
So, with that being said, just how bad has 2025 been? And where will it ultimately stack up against his worst-ever performances when the checkered flag comes down on the campaign in Abu Dhabi? Let’s take a look.
7th Place – 2024
Last season was Hamilton’s final Mercedes year, a campaign in which he finished seventh in the standings, his lowest ever finish. The statistics offer a tangled portrait: intermittently competitive but frequently hamstrung by the W15’s capricious handling. Australia and the United States produced costly retirements, while qualifying form sawsawed. Yet, even in the gloom, Hamilton conjured late-career magic.
Silverstone’s checkered flag waved for him after a 31-month wait for a race victory; another win at Spa reminded the world of his class; and Hungary marked a rare milestone—podium number 200. Still, teammate George Russell enjoyed the upper hand across the year, and Max Verstappen’s relentless Red Bull rendered the title fight academic by midseason.
6th Place – 2022
If 2025 is the chapter of adaptation, 2022 was the gauntlet of physics. The tale of the Mercedes W13—a car infamously plagued by porpoising—became one of the sport’s defining technical dramas. Hamilton endured an “undrivable” season in his own words, so punishing that it left him nursing a back injury in Baku.
An 18th-place finish in Abu Dhabi, littered with DNFs and early tactical gambles gone awry, epitomized a car and campaign in crisis. Yet amid adversity came resilience: nine podiums, late surges in Austin and São Paulo, and a persistence that kept his narrative alive even as his win tally froze. The sting—teammate George Russell, in his maiden full year at Mercedes, bested Hamilton by 35 points, a pointed reminder of generational tides turning. That year, Red Bull and Ferrari hoarded the top step, and for Hamilton, the triumphs lived only in his memories.
5th Place – 2009
Entering 2009 as reigning champion, Hamilton was kneecapped by regulation shifts that left McLaren’s MP4-24 gasping for relevance. Suddenly, Q2 exits, and midfield anonymity replaced pole positions. The nadir: disqualification in Australia and an excruciating 18th at the Nürburgring. Yet, as the grid’s tectonic plates shifted, Hamilton and McLaren rewrote their script at midseason.
Buoyed by substantial upgrades, he thundered to victories in Hungary and Singapore, snatching further podiums and clawing back from the depths of 11th in the standings. Ending the season in fifth was both a mark of remarkable recovery—and a warning. Even for champions, Formula 1 can be unforgiving.