Lewis Hamilton's 2026 redemption: can the seven-time champion answer Johnny Herbert's championship doubt?

The motorsport world has seldom questioned Lewis Hamilton's championship credentials, yet the 41-year-old finds himself facing unprecedented scrutiny as he embarks on what could be the most crucial season of his career. Former F1 driver Johnny Herbert recently delivered a damning assessment, suggesting that a hypothetical championship battle between Hamilton and long-time rival Fernando Alonso would favor the Aston Martin driver—a verdict that has sent shockwaves through the paddock and highlighted just how far the seven-time world champion has fallen from his dominant peak.

A disastrous 2025: the reality behind the criticism

Hamilton's inaugural season with Ferrari in 2025 was nothing short of catastrophic by his standards. The British driver managed an unprecedented achievement—not in a positive sense—by failing to secure a single podium finish across the entire campaign, a first in his illustrious F1 career. He finished sixth in the drivers' championship, a position incomprehensible for a driver of his stature just years earlier. More damaging still was his performance relative to his team-mate Charles Leclerc, who accumulated seven podiums in the same machinery and finished an astonishing 86 points clear of Hamilton.

The statistical disparity tells an even more sobering story. Hamilton scored just 64.5% of Leclerc's points throughout the season—a performance gap that exposed fundamental issues between driver and car. While Hamilton's qualifying deficit of 0.178 seconds to Leclerc appeared manageable on paper, in the razor-thin margins of modern F1, such gaps frequently meant the difference between competing for podiums and fighting in the midfield.

Herbert's bombshell: the case against Hamilton

During an appearance on the Stay on Track podcast, Herbert articulated the reasoning behind his controversial stance. Acknowledging Alonso's continued ability to extract performance from an uncompetitive Aston Martin, Herbert contrasted this with Hamilton's apparent inability to unlock Ferrari's potential. "I never saw that happen last year with Lewis," Herbert explained, "which I'm sort of shocked that we never ever saw."

The commentary struck at a deeper psychological concern—that Hamilton appeared genuinely confounded by the SF-25's characteristics, unable to formulate a coherent strategy to overcome its fundamental shortcomings. Herbert observed that in post-race interviews, Hamilton "is lost. He cannot understand what he needs to do to get around the problem he's got." Meanwhile, Leclerc demonstrated consistent mastery of the same vehicle, systematically accumulating points finishes and validating Ferrari's machinery despite its acknowledged deficiencies.

The 2026 reset: Ferrari's ambitious technical overhaul

Yet dismissing Hamilton's championship prospects entirely may prove premature. The 2026 regulation overhaul represents a genuine opportunity for comprehensive reset—precisely the type of technical upheaval that could realign the competitive order and allow Ferrari to reestablish their championship credentials. Critically, Ferrari has committed to addressing the fundamental issues that plagued the 2025 campaign.

According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, the Scuderia's technical team plans a comprehensive suspension redesign, transitioning from a pull-rod system to a push-rod architecture on both cars. This represents the type of vehicular dynamics overhaul at which Loic Serra, Ferrari's performance director and Hamilton's former Mercedes collaborator, has consistently excelled. The technical direction specifically targets "the difficulty in getting the tyres to work properly and the chronic lack of grip in critical conditions," issues that plagued both Hamilton and Leclerc throughout 2025.

Ferrari's philosophy for the SF-26 centers on delivering "a predictable and consistent car that doesn't lose efficiency or become unmanageable as grip levels change on the track." For Hamilton, whose struggles often manifested as unpredictability and inconsistency, this technical pivot could prove transformative.

Hamilton's championship resolve: a psychological reset

Hamilton himself has signaled his determination to move forward, insisting that "the time for change is now." Following a difficult post-season period, the seven-time champion has returned refreshed and psychologically recalibrated. A former Ferrari engineer dismissed suggestions that Hamilton might capitulate under pressure, asserting that "Lewis is not going to give up just because 2025 was tough. He foresaw it being very tough. Hamilton will come back stronger."

The 2026 season presents Hamilton with an opportunity to silence Herbert's doubts and reclaim his position among F1's elite competitors, pursuing his record-breaking eighth world title with renewed purpose and a car built to his technical requirements.