Lewis Hamilton hits back at critics: ‘I’ll keep delivering’

There is a particular kind of criticism that stings more than most. Not the kind that comes from rivals or rivals’ camps, but the kind that comes from people who have raced in Formula 1 themselves, who understand the pressures and the machinery, and who use that inside knowledge to argue that a driver’s time is over.

Lewis Hamilton experienced that criticism in full during the 2025 Formula 1 season. He has not forgotten it.

“When you have difficult years, there are lots of questions all over the place,” he said.

“Ultimately, I saw certain individuals who had not had anywhere near the success that I had talking negatively, as they continue to do so today. And it felt great to be able to come back and come into this season and start off strong, to be able to show that I still have what it takes to compete at the front.”

The “certain individuals” he was referring to did not go unnamed in wider media coverage. Ralf Schumacher was among the most vocal, having argued in multiple interviews with Sky Deutschland that Ferrari should consider replacing Hamilton with Oliver Bearman for 2026.

The former German driver suggested the chances of the new regulations suiting a 41-year-old still adapting to a new team were very low.

Former teammate Nico Rosberg had also weighed in critically. An anonymous end-of-season vote among team principals for the best drivers of 2025 did not include Hamilton in the top ten, a list he had last topped in 2020.

A season to forget

The 2025 campaign was, by any honest measure, the worst of Hamilton’s career. He became the first Ferrari driver in over 40 years not to score a podium finish in a full season.

He finished sixth in the drivers’ standings, trailing teammate Charles Leclerc by a margin that raised uncomfortable questions. Former F1 driver Johnny Herbert described Hamilton as looking “lost and dejected” in interviews.

The car was partly to blame. The SF-25 was a difficult machine that Ferrari eventually stopped developing earlier than planned. Hamilton arrived at Maranello when the car’s concept was already finalised, leaving him little room to influence its direction. But that context did not soften the headlines.

What Hamilton did instead of withdrawing was spend the winter closer to the Ferrari factory than he had been at any point in his first year. Factory visits, development meetings, extended time with the engineers working on the SF-26. The results of that investment became visible almost immediately in 2026.

He finished fourth in Australia, narrowly missing the podium behind Leclerc. Then, at the Chinese Grand Prix, he reversed that order.

A podium in Shanghai, a circuit where he holds a record six victories, gave Hamilton his first full grand prix podium for Ferrari after 26 race starts with the team.

The emotion he described afterwards was not that of a driver proving a point to the outside world. It was something quieter and more personal.

“Every weekend fell short last year, and I would come back and you feel gutted, you feel bad that you have ultimately not been able to deliver for the team. But they are always like, next time, next time. They are always just so positive and supportive. So to finally have the podium, and come back and see how happy and how grateful they were to be a part of it, really warmed my heart.”

The critics have not gone away

Not everyone has been persuaded. Former Ferrari race winner Eddie Irvine, speaking to an Italian publication, argued that Leclerc had outclassed Hamilton at Suzuka and that one podium in a favourable circuit did not constitute a full return to form.

Irvine’s caution is not unreasonable. Leclerc has scored more points in each of the opening three rounds, and Ferrari’s second place in the constructors’ standings owes as much to the Monegasque as it does to Hamilton.

But the comparison the critics make is not really between Hamilton and Leclerc. It is between Hamilton now and Hamilton at his peak.

That is a standard applied to almost no other driver on the grid, and one that Hamilton himself seems to have made peace with.

“I am not really talking back to them or anything like that,” he said after the China Sprint in 2025, when he first began to silence doubters.

“It is just that we live in such a strange time in the world that people just love to be negative at any opportunity.”