Hamilton Seeks to Regain Joy at Ferrari: F1 Resumes in Zandvoort

Lewis Hamilton Seeks to Rediscover Passion for F1 at Ferrari

British driver Lewis Hamilton expresses his desire to rediscover joy in Formula 1 during the second half of the season. After admitting that the pressure of driving for Ferrari diminished his enjoyment of the sport before the summer break, the seven-time world champion seeks a change of course. Hamilton joined Ferrari from Mercedes during the winter, fulfilling his childhood dream of racing for the Italian team. However, Ferrari’s performance issues compared to McLaren, and Hamilton’s difficulties in adapting to a completely new car, resulted in a series of disappointing results.

I feel determined and motivated to keep going. We’re just going to work, keep our heads down, try to change some things in our approach and start enjoying it. There has been so much pressure in this first half of the season, it hasn’t been the most pleasant. So I think remembering that we love what we do, that we’re all in this together and yes, trying to have fun.

Lewis Hamilton

In the last race in Hungary, Hamilton admitted to feeling “useless” after qualifying outside the top ten, suggesting that Ferrari might be better off without him. Now, looking ahead to the resumption of the season in the Netherlands, the Ferrari driver states that his focus for the remaining ten races of 2025 will be to enjoy the experience of being a Ferrari driver. Hamilton explained that the pressure came from various factors: “Just to be on top of everything, the amount of work we have, all the new partners, the amount of filming we’ve done, the integration into a new team, and it’s a big team, the biggest brand in our sport as well. So a combination of all those different things has been a lot.”

After coming close to winning the constructors’ title last year, expectations surrounding Ferrari were high before the season. The arrival of the most successful driver in the history of the sport only served to attract more attention to the team, and Hamilton noted that the combination had created an unwanted level of “noise” around the team.

It’s probably the most important part [to have fun], because that’s the reason I got into this sport, it was fun for me, and I think for anyone in any career they’re in, if you’re not enjoying what you’re doing, why are you doing it? There can often be so much noise that you can lose sight of what’s really important.

Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton does not expect a sudden change in results in the second half of the year, but he commented that the F1 summer break has been an opportunity to reset before this weekend’s race in Zandvoort. “It hasn’t necessarily changed much, but the good thing is that when you have time to disconnect like that, it’s a reset. I had time to review this past week, in particular to review where we’ve been, the things we want to improve, the processes, the things we want to try to change in the future. I see a lot of potential. There are many positive things to take from the first [half of the year], even if it didn’t necessarily seem the most positive. There are many positive things to take from it, which we will carry forward and try to build on.”