Former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone reduced Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari to a “financial marketing project” in a damning assessment.
With Hamilton struggling to make a success of his first season with Ferrari, Ecclestone also took aim at Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur, claiming that he is not the “dictator” which Ferrari needs to successfully run the team.
Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari: A slow-burner waiting to flourish?
While Hamilton has found improved pace in the second half of F1 2025, he will go into the Sao Paulo Grand Prix 64 points behind Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc in the standings. Hamilton is yet to register his first grand prix podium with Ferrari.
It was a move designed to revitalise Hamilton’s career after a challenging final few years at Mercedes, but his pursuit of a record eighth world championship appears in danger unless he and Ferrari can turn the tide under the new chassis and engine regulations coming for F1 2026.
It is a partnership which certainly has not impressed Ecclestone, who in a sport.de interview, gave his typically unfiltered opinion.
Ecclestone bluntly stated his belief that Hamilton is “one of the best of the last ten years, but he’s not the best”, while he dismissed the union of Hamilton and Ferrari as a “financial marketing project”.
Ecclestone added on Hamilton: “Everything is slipping away from him there. He wanted to become world champion there and is now surprised that he can’t do it.”
Vasseur – who has been at the Ferrari helm since 2023 and signed a new multi-year deal in the summer – is not the style of leader which Ferrari requires, according to Ecclestone.
“The problem is that Ferrari needs a dictator at the top to be successful,” Ecclestone suggested.
“They don’t speak Italian there, they speak Ferrarian. Everyone in Italy has a say and interferes in what is right and wrong.”
