Former Ferrari driver Arturo Merzario has alleged that ‘90 per cent of the employees did not approve’ the decision to sign Lewis Hamilton. The seven-time world champion has endured a challenging debut season with the Scuderia. Hamilton headed into the summer break looking to shake off two miserable weekends in Belgium and Hungary.
The 40-year-old was knocked out in Q1 in both the sprint shootout and qualifying at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, and failed to reach Q3 again in Hungary, before crossing the line in 12th place. With only 10 rounds of the 2025 campaign remaining, the legendary Brit trails team-mate Charles Leclerc by 42 points, and is still waiting for his first trip to the rostrum with his new squad. For a driver with 202 career podiums in Formula One, this is uncharted territory.
According to Merzario, who drove for Ferrari during the 1972 and 1973 F1 campaigns, large portions of the Scuderia’s workforce were against the signing from the outset. “In my opinion, Hamilton’s arrival in Maranello was a commercial operation,” he told Gazzetta dello Sport.
“As far as I know, 90 per cent of the employees at Ferrari did not approve of this decision. And then, when a driver does not feel valued or an integral part of the group to achieve a goal, he loses motivation. Why go crazy to gain three-tenths while still remaining on the third row?”
However, Merzario isn’t writing Hamilton’s tenure as a Ferrari driver as a failure just yet. “It’s not over,” he continued. “He is just waiting for the right opportunity. He will only risk when necessary, not for an eighth position.
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“Also, because if he ever wanted to leave, he would find another team. Hamilton has already shown what he is worth. It’s not Charles Leclerc’s situation. Charles still has to prove that he is a champion.”
Addressing Hamilton’s post-qualifying interview at the Hungarian Grand Prix, in which he declared himself “useless”, Merzario said: “That statement was a bit ironic to me. But, of course, this position is not acceptable for a seven-time world champion. It seems to me that Lewis feels like someone who has been destroyed by Ferrari.”
Hamilton will be desperate to end his podium drought after the summer break comes to an end, and with his first trip to Monza coming up after the Dutch Grand Prix, the 105-time F1 race winner will be dreaming of proving his doubters wrong at Ferrari’s most important race of the year.