The seven-time world champion’s first season at Maranello has been turbulent, with journalists suggesting Hamilton’s repeated mistakes stem from pressure and difficulty adapting to Ferrari.
Lewis Hamilton has found himself in far more trouble with the FIA stewards this season than he would have hoped for in his debut year at Ferrari. The 40-year-old has racked up a worrying list of infractions in 2025, including just the third disqualification of his 19-year Formula 1 career after the Chinese Grand Prix, where excessive plank wear — a setup error by Ferrari — led to his exclusion.
While Shanghai’s incident was on the team, Hamilton has been at fault on several other occasions. Damon Hill suggested the Brit “always comes off worse” with the stewards this year, while Hamilton himself admitted in Mexico that he felt “let down” by what he described as “double standards” after receiving a 10-second penalty for gaining an advantage when going off-track in his duel with Max Verstappen.
Why Hamilton is struggling to adapt at Ferrari
Hamilton’s penalties have not stopped there. He later picked up a five-second penalty in São Paulo for a collision with Alpine’s Franco Colapinto — an incident that ended his race. And now, journalist Ralf Bach has told F1-Insider that the root of Hamilton’s issues may be deeper than simple mistakes: he believes the Ferrari star is placing “excessive demands” on himself.
“He’s not yet a unit with the team and the car. That’s for sure,” Bach said. “The fact that he gets penalised so often also has something to do with the excessive demands that he’s currently under. He’s focusing so much on himself and the car that he can’t see the environment around him.”
Bach suggested Hamilton may be missing critical cues — including yellow flags — because he is still concentrating heavily on adapting to Ferrari’s setup and driving style. “He hasn’t got used to the way of working in Maranello,” he added. “He’s a bit overwhelmed.”
A season defined by repeated penalties
Hamilton narrowly avoided two penalties at Interlagos during his 21st race weekend with Ferrari. The stewards cleared him after investigating a failure to slow under double-waved yellows during Sprint Qualifying, after Charles Leclerc spun ahead of him. But he was not so fortunate at the Dutch Grand Prix, where speeding in a yellow-flag zone earned him a five-place grid drop for the following race in Italy.
Earlier in the season, Hamilton received a three-place grid penalty in Monaco for impeding Max Verstappen in Q1 — an incident caused by miscommunication with race engineer Riccardo Adami, who believed Verstappen was on a cool lap. In Singapore, a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage dropped Hamilton from P7 to P8, handing Fernando Alonso an extra point.
Hamilton’s first campaign in red has been anything but smooth. Between adapting to Ferrari’s methods, coping with pressure, and trying to rediscover his rhythm, his season has become defined as much by penalties as by performance — a combination the seven-time champion will be desperate to turn around.
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