Is Age Catching Up with Lewis Hamilton? Heidfeld Shares His Thoughts
May 25 – Age could be playing a role in Lewis Hamilton’s on-track performances, according to former Formula 1 driver Nick Heidfeld.
After narrowly – and in many 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 not been perfect.
“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.
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.”
After up and downs in the first few races, including a win in the China Sprint, Hamilton has shown improvements in Miami, Imola and Monaco. However, he was penalized at Monaco for impeding, losing his solid P4 in Qualifying and now starting seventh.
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.”
✅ Check out more posts with related topics:
