Lewis Hamilton lined up on the grid at Silverstone – Source: Pixabay
Lewis Hamilton arrived at Ferrari in 2025 carrying the hopes of a revival and the weight of history. The seven-time world champion had hopes of garnering the championship record outright in Maranello, claiming an eighth crown at the same team that Michael Schumacher dominated for so many years. What has unfolded is a season of rare, almost surreal struggle.
Through the opening 21 races in scarlet red, Hamilton has not managed a single podium finish, let alone a grand prix victory. Never before across his legendary 18-season Formula 1 career has he experienced such a protracted spell out of the top three. And if the online betting odds ahead of the most recent Brazilian Grand Prix are anything to go by, Hamilton will have his work cut out if he is to get on the podium before the season is out.
Online Formula 1 odds providers heading into that Sao Paulo showdown made the 40-year-old a 5/1 outsider to finish on the podium, with a scarcely believable six drivers all considered more likely. For a driver who has amassed a record 202 podiums—an average of one every 6.5 starts—this is not just a drought, but a never-ending nightmare.
But droughts, however agonizing, are part of the Hamilton legend. The all-time great has been here before, albeit not to this extent, and has managed to return to his very best. Here are the three that he has bounced back from in years gone by.
13 Races: Mexico 2023 → Spain 2024
The build-up to 2025 was already painted with adversity. Hamilton’s penultimate season with Mercedes saw him adrift of the front—outpaced not only by the dominant Red Bulls but also by the ascendant McLarens and, painfully, by his own teammate, George Russell. Across 13 consecutive races beginning in Brazil 2023, Hamilton was nowhere near the silverware.
With his W15 lacking aerodynamic stability and straight-line speed, Hamilton was stranded in the points’ hinterland. The fact that Russell frequently bested him in both qualifying and race trim only added fuel to the fire—was the greatest of all time past his best, or were Mercedes fundamentally lost?
Strategic slips, a car mired by porpoising, and brutal overtakes from rivals only deepened the gloom. Yet, in Spain 2024, the drought finally ended. Hamilton wrestled the upgraded W15 into third place with a drive that was both clinical and defiant. Two races later, he ended an 18-month wait for a Grand Prix win when he reigned supreme at Silverstone for a record-breaking ninth time, proving that the veteran had plenty of gas left in the tank.
🚨🏎️ LEWIS HAMILTON WINS THE BRITISH GRAND PRIX!
— Bodog (@BodogCA) July 7, 2024
11 Races: China 2008 → Hungary 2009
Flash back to late 2008. Hamilton had just clinched the World Drivers’ Championship in the most dramatic fashion at Interlagos, overtaking Timo Glock’s Toyota on the final corner of the final lap of the final race of the season to claim his maiden title. Yet, Formula 1 in 2009 was a realm transformed: sweeping technical changes reshuffled the pecking order, leaving McLaren’s MP4-24 floundering firstly in midfield and then among the back markers.
Suddenly, the reigning champion found himself battling for Q2 survival while the likes of Brawn GP and Red Bull surged ahead. Sure, he wrestled his trainwreck of a car to third place in the season opener in Australia, only to subsequently be disqualified in the controversial “liegate” fiasco.
The numbers were stark—eleven straight races without a podium finish. It was a spell peppered with visible frustration: skirmishes in Bahrain, radio outbursts, and a sense of a champion contained. After a 16th-place finish in Great Britain, followed by 18th in Germany, McLaren finally armed their main man with vital mid-season upgrades, and Hamilton immediately burst into life, winning in Hungary from fourth on the grid and ending his barren spell.
10 Races: Belgium 2013 → Malaysia 2014
Hamilton’s early Mercedes brought plenty of teething problems. The Stevenage-born star knew he was heading to the Silver Arrows from McLaren with the future rather than the present firmly in mind. Ultimately, his decision was to make the move—a move that was labeled as leaving Manchester United for West Ham by Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson.
His maiden campaign began with podiums, five of them, including a race victory as the campaign headed into its second half. Belgium, however, would be his last taste of champagne for some time, with a frustrating end to the season draining Hamilton of all optimism. With his W04 suffering from crippling tyre degradation and balance woes, Hamilton did not finish on the podium in the season’s final eight rounds, before a retirement in the opening race of the 2014 season left him playing catch-up to teammate Nico Rosberg.
Yet, if you’re counting Hamilton out, you do so at your peril. The dawn of the turbo-hybrid era in 2014 would unleash an unprecedented period of dominance. Sure, he retired in the Land Down Under, but the drought ended emphatically with a stunning win in Malaysia in round two. Come the end of this season, he was champion for a second time, and the greatest run of Hamilton’s career was officially underway.
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