Ferrari will have a new driver pairing next season having signed Hamilton as Charles Leclerc’s 2025 team-mate, and doing so even before the first laps of this campaign.
Lewis Hamilton is no longer as fast as he used to be’
The decision meant the end of the Ferrari road for Sainz, who responded by winning the Australian Grand Prix while last week he added Mexico to his list.
With 240 points on the board this season, the soon-to-be Williams driver not only outscored the entire field in October but he’s ahead of Hamilton who has 189 points.
Like Sainz, Hamilton has secured two wins this season, P1 at Silverstone and again at Spa. That’s helped put him ahead of his Mercedes team-mate George Russell in the Drivers’ standings.
But he does trail his compatriot in qualifying where Russell is 15-5 up. Hamilton has only once lost a qualifying head-to-head to a team-mate, that was Nico Rosberg in 2014.
It has Surer saying he believes Ferrari made the “wrong” choice putting Hamilton in the car as the Briton is slowing down.
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“I would say yes,” the former F1 driver told the Formel1.de YouTube channel.
“If Hamilton comes, it will certainly be a very positive story at first. But in the long term, it is the wrong decision because Lewis Hamilton is getting old.
“You don’t get faster with age. You become more experienced, you may be able to do more tricks in the race. But the pure speed is lost, even if that’s only hundredths of a second per year.
“That’s why I’m convinced that Hamilton is no longer as fast as he used to be.”
But given that Hamilton won this year’s British Grand Prix, his ninth home win, Surer reckons the seven-time World Champion showed he still has it when he’s motivated.
