Hamilton brought more than his talent to Ferrari: 'It's brutal for the team'

Since F1 champion Lewis Hamilton completed his move to Ferrari for the 2025 season, the spotlight has not ceased to shine on the Briton or the Italian team, "something brutal", former Haas team principal, Guenther Steiner notes.

The much talked about collaboration between Hamilton and Ferrari has not yet yielded its promise, albeit the sprint pole and win did seem to slightly quiet down the criticism surrounding the transfer, only for a day, though.

Steiner sees pressure is high at Ferrari due to Hamilton

The Scuderia, on Sunday suffered from a lack of pace particularly in Hamilton's car, as he had to let teammate, Charles Leclerc, overtake, who failed to clinch the last podium place from George Russell, and lost the P4 to Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen.

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc at the Chinese Grand Prix

In the end, Ferrari got slammed with a double disqualification after cars number 44 and 16 failed to pass the FIA's post race inspections. But according to Steiner, there's no panic setting in at Ferrari... yet.

"I don’t think there’s a desperation setting in. I think they just want to do a job and got a few things [wrong],” the former team boss said during an episode of the Red Flags podcast.

Could the Italian team be feeling the heat that comes with Hamilton? “The pressure is high. You see, as soon as he does something, how he catches the attention of everyone, right?. It’s something brutal. It’s Lewis Hamilton."

'Mercedes' success "unseen" because Hamilton's not there'

The opposite effect may be felt at Mercedes, Steiner says.

“Look at, for example, Mercedes now. I think Mercedes is doing a good job this year, obviously they are not beating McLaren, but nobody knows about it. It’s very unseen.

“You see more from Ferrari and Lewis’ performance, than the better performance of Mercedes. Because, it’s not Lewis Hamilton. Lewis attracts [attention], he’s a star. He is, so people are attracted to him,” concluded Steiner.

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