Not just Ferrari: Lewis Hamilton faces challenges on and off the track. Lewis Hamilton: financial setbacks at Neat Burger paint a complex picture of his current form..

The word most used by insiders to describe Lewis Hamilton’s start to 2025 at Ferrari is “failure.” The British driver, also due to a difficult-to-understand SF-25, is struggling quite a bit in these first months as a Ferrari driver. Only thirty-one points collected over five races, with the Sprint win in Shanghai having given Ferrari fans false hope of finally fighting for something important.

The Chinese weekend race, topped off by the double disqualification of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, brought everyone back down to earth, with Japan and Bahrain confirming the problems of a car that currently seems to be manageable only by Charles Leclerc. Yes, because while the seven-time world champion continues to express satisfaction at making it into Q3, his teammate managed to bring home Ferrari’s first podium of the season.

He did it at the end of a masterfully managed Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, in which for the first time the SF-25’s potential strengths could be seen. The latest car to come out of Maranello, on a low-abrasion circuit like Jeddah, showed it could manage tire wear well, allowing car number 16 to delay the first pit stop as much as possible.

The trouble doesn’t stop on the track
Lewis Hamilton’s rough patch goes beyond the racetrack. In recent days, the vegan fast-food chain Neat Burger, in which the Ferrari driver is also a shareholder, has been forced to close two outlets in the United Kingdom. The brand had gained significant popularity in 2019 thanks in part to investors like Hamilton, DiCaprio, and Courtois.

Locations had quickly opened all around the world. Among them was Milan, which remains one of the few cities to survive the crisis that has hit Neat Burger in recent years. According to some sources, there was a loss of around eight million pounds in 2022, which led to a slow collapse in the brand’s popularity.

The closure of the latest stores in the UK will affect more than one hundred employees. This highlights how vegan-based food service is suffering from the economic difficulties that followed the pandemic. Neat Burger is not an isolated case but one that also involves other brands. It will now be interesting to see what the future holds for the Milan location.