Racing
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Lewis Hamilton will retire from Formula 1 when he accepts Ferrari cannot deliver the eighth world title he joined the team to chase, according to former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner.
Speaking to Casino.org, Steiner said Hamilton’s future is now tied less to age than to whether the Ferrari project still offers a realistic path to a record-breaking championship. “At some stage he will say he's had enough of this, but I think when he realizes that he cannot win the eighth world championship in a Ferrari, that is when he will say, ‘I want to stop’,” Steiner said.
That view centers the whole Ferrari move around a single objective. Hamilton, now 41, left Mercedes after 12 seasons and arrived at Maranello for 2025 in pursuit of an eighth drivers’ crown. Instead, his first Ferrari campaign ended sixth in the standings without a podium, the worst statistical season of his Formula 1 career.
Steiner said Hamilton no longer has anything to prove to the rest of the paddock. “He doesn't have to prove anything to anybody anymore. He only wants to prove to himself that he can still do it,” he said. While Hamilton has started 2026 more strongly, including a podium in Shanghai, he sits fifth in the championship on 51 points after four rounds and Ferrari has not yet looked like a title-contending force.
The pressure on that plan has grown because Hamilton’s improvement has still not settled the question inside Ferrari itself. He has largely been behind Charles Leclerc on pace, which has sharpened outside doubts about whether Hamilton can sustain a title challenge over a full season.
Former Ferrari engineer Aldo Costa, speaking on the Terruzzi Racconta podcast, said he would love to see Hamilton win an eighth title with Ferrari but warned that age eventually changes every driver’s level. “In my opinion, every driver eventually reaches a point where their performance begins to decline a little,” Costa said. He stopped short of saying Hamilton had definitely reached that stage, adding that only the people working closely with him could judge that properly, but he also noted that Hamilton is “alongside an extremely strong teammate.”
Ralf Schumacher has been more direct. Speaking on Sky Germany’s Backstage Boxengasse podcast, Schumacher said Hamilton is in better shape this year but argued that “over the whole year and in the long term, doesn't stand a chance against Leclerc.”
If Steiner’s reading is right, the significance goes beyond Hamilton alone. He said the moment Hamilton decides the eighth title is out of reach is also the moment “a seat will open up for Bearman.” Oliver Bearman, 21, has established himself at Haas and is widely viewed as Ferrari’s leading long-term replacement option, giving Hamilton’s title prospects immediate importance for Ferrari’s next driver decision as well.