Sebastian Vettel has identified the 2019 Formula 1 season as the point when his belief in winning a world championship with Ferrari began to disappear, admitting that failing to deliver the title remains one of the deepest disappointments of his career. His experience now provides a striking contrast with Lewis Hamilton, who has recovered from a painful first year at Maranello to become a championship contender in 2026.
Speaking on Formula 1’s official Beyond the Grid podcast, the four-time world champion reflected candidly on the ambition that shaped his six seasons with the Scuderia. Vettel desperately wanted to recreate the success achieved by Michael Schumacher, but Ferrari’s strongest opportunities slipped away before the project began to unravel.
When Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari title belief began to fade
Sebastian Vettel joined Ferrari in 2015 after winning four consecutive drivers’ championships with Red Bull. He arrived as the driver expected to end the Italian team’s long title drought and lead Maranello back to the summit of Formula 1.
The German devoted six seasons of his career to that objective, with his most convincing challenges coming in 2017 and 2018. Vettel recalled that Ferrari started the 2017 campaign particularly well before returning with a more complete and competitive car the following year. Nevertheless, the Scuderia failed to complete the job on either occasion.
Mercedes became stronger during the closing stages of both championship battles, while Ferrari lost momentum amid operational errors and demanding development contests. Vettel therefore entered 2019 still pursuing the title that had brought him to Maranello, but that season ultimately changed his outlook.
The former Ferrari driver explained that he had wanted the championship intensely and found it extremely difficult to accept that it never happened. He described 2019 as a breaking year personally because he began to feel that Ferrari were not progressing towards the required standard and might simply not be good enough to achieve their shared objective.
Those reflections expand on the moment Sebastian Vettel lost faith in Ferrari’s title prospects, revealing how a competitive project gradually became a source of lasting regret.
Ferrari’s 2019 inconsistency changed Vettel’s trajectory
Ferrari possessed a highly potent power unit in 2019, but the car and team did not produce the consistency required to sustain a championship challenge. Instead of building on the promise of the previous two seasons, the campaign became the point at which Vettel’s confidence in the wider project started to weaken.
The arrival of Charles Leclerc also transformed the internal dynamic. The younger driver immediately presented a major challenge, and 2019 increasingly came to represent the beginning of the final chapter of Vettel’s Ferrari career rather than the start of another championship opportunity.
Vettel remained with the team for the 2020 season before moving to Aston Martin in 2021. He retired from Formula 1 at the end of 2022 without fulfilling his childhood ambition of becoming world champion in Ferrari colours.
His experience illustrates the unusual emotional intensity surrounding the Scuderia. Success can turn a driver into a hero among the Tifosi, while stalled development, relentless media scrutiny and internal pressure can rapidly change the atmosphere around the team. That environment made Vettel’s failed championship pursuit particularly difficult to process.
Lewis Hamilton endured his own painful Ferrari beginning
Lewis Hamilton encountered similar pressure after joining Ferrari for the 2025 season. The seven-time world champion’s move had been presented as the combination of Formula 1’s most successful driver and its most famous team, but his opening campaign produced very different results.
Hamilton struggled to adapt to Ferrari’s car architecture, working methods and culture. His difficulties reached a particularly low point at the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix, where another painful Q1 elimination prompted him to describe his own performance in extremely negative terms.
Speculation subsequently emerged over whether the British driver would complete his contract. Like Vettel before him, Hamilton appeared to be discovering how quickly expectations at Maranello could turn into an enormous psychological burden when results failed to arrive.
However, the direction of his Ferrari career has since changed dramatically. Whereas Vettel’s confidence gradually declined after 2019, Hamilton has rebuilt his form and established himself at the front of the 2026 championship battle.
Lewis Hamilton’s 2026 Ferrari revival changes the picture
Hamilton worked extensively behind the scenes with team principal Frédéric Vasseur to improve the car’s set-up and develop a stronger understanding of what he required from the Ferrari. That effort helped produce a major competitive revival during the first half of 2026.
The defining moment arrived at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix in June, when Lewis Hamilton secured an emotional victory and put the struggles of his debut Ferrari campaign behind him. The result demonstrated that the Briton could still compete at the very front while giving the Maranello team renewed hope in the championship fight.
At the summer break, Hamilton occupies second place in the Drivers’ Championship with 169 points. He trails Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli by 50 points, but five podium finishes from the opening 11 races have confirmed the scale of his recovery.
The deficit could have been smaller without several penalties, incidents and missed opportunities, as shown by the examination of the points Hamilton surrendered during Ferrari’s 2026 title campaign. Even so, his position represents a substantial turnaround from the doubts surrounding his future only one season earlier.
Ferrari have also made clear progress, although Frédéric Vasseur’s mid-season assessment emphasised that the team’s current results still fall short of its objectives. Converting improved speed into consistent execution will be essential if the Scuderia are to apply greater pressure to Mercedes after the break.
Vettel’s regret underlines Hamilton’s ultimate Ferrari test
Sebastian Vettel’s admission shows how difficult it is for even a multiple world champion to complete the final step with Ferrari. His time at Maranello included race victories and genuine title challenges, yet his strongest opportunities disappeared before he could secure the championship he valued most.
Lewis Hamilton has already survived the first major crisis of his own Ferrari career. His recovery has returned him to the championship conversation and prompted discussion over whether Ferrari may eventually need to prioritise his 2026 title challenge.
The remaining question is whether Hamilton can go further than Vettel and turn his revival into the championship that has eluded every Ferrari driver since 2007. With Kimi Antonelli holding a 50-point advantage, the task remains formidable, but the seven-time world champion has at least restored the possibility of achieving the dream that proved beyond Vettel’s reach.
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