As he so often has before, Lewis Hamilton put on a brave face. A sight more commendable than usual, given the visceral anger bubbling beneath the surface.

Upon parking up in the Foro Sol stadium section in Mexico City last Sunday, Hamilton was the first to congratulate new world champion Kimi Antonelli, his Mercedes team whom he knows inside out, and his race engineer Peter Bonnington, the man-in-his-ear for his six world titles with the Silver Arrows. His happiness for the Italian, 21 years his junior, was authentically real. And yet, deep down, there can be no doubt that Hamilton would have felt a lingering sense of what might have been.

Because, in another world, a world where he stayed put and waited patiently in silver-and-black for this year’s regulation change, a change which always seemed destined to favour Mercedes, Hamilton would be the driver claiming this year’s Formula 1 world championship.

Back in August 2023, Hamilton penned a new contract extension with Mercedes alongside teammate George Russell. The assumption had always been that, should Hamilton continue his F1 career into his 40s, it would be with his multiple championship-winning outfit. A year earlier, Hamilton had even declared: “I think I’ll always be with Mercedes… until the day I die.”

Not so. Fast-forward five months and Hamilton was in Toto Wolff’s Oxfordshire home telling his long-term boss over breakfast that he was leaving Mercedes for one of the team’s great rivals: Ferrari. Having experienced two winless years with Mercedes, Hamilton had lost patience with his team of over a decade. It was time for something fresh, something illustrious, something steeped in scarlet red.

And it’s worth recalling just how fever-pitched the excitement was surrounding Hamilton’s move to Ferrari: F1’s most fabled team. First, we had the year-long preamble: the final season at Mercedes which, ironically, saw Hamilton land two wins in Silverstone and Spa. Then, we had the pre-season pageantry: that first sight of Hamilton in the car at Fiorano, adjacent to the Maranello HQ.

Even Hamilton’s comments prior to the season-opener in Australia last year spoke of a newfound motivation. “This is the most exciting period of my life,” he declared. It would not take long – a 10th place finish when a podium or even a win seemed in the offing in Melbourne – for the smile to be wiped off his face.

And while McLaren – the team he won his first title with in 2008 – dominated proceedings in 2025 with Red Bull and Mercedes battling valiantly behind, Ferrari were distinctly fourth-best and on the fringes. Notwithstanding a false dawn with an early sprint race pole and win in China, it was Hamilton’s worst-ever season in Formula 1. Never mind a victory: it was Hamilton’s first-ever podium-less campaign.

The only solace was this year’s rule change – could the tide turn in his favour? Could Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur find some batons of hope for Hamilton and teammate Charles Leclerc? The answer would be yes – but nowhere near enough.

In a strange way, this year has almost been one of more frustration for Hamilton. The performance, at times, has been there: while Mercedes’ engine power has given them superiority on the straights, Ferrari’s downforce optimisation has given their car an edge in the corners. When Hamilton magically – and finally – secured his first Ferrari grand prix victory in Barcelona in June, the 41-year-old trailed Antonelli by just 41 points. Was that elusive eighth championship an actual prospect? Could this really be his time again?

Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari record

The answer to those questions have proven to be an unambiguous no. Now, five months on, Hamilton trails Antonelli, who has an unassailable lead, by 121 points. He has lost second in the standings to Max Verstappen, now winner of three races this season, whose Red Bull team were in no man’s land at the start of the year. Hamilton has seen races, and points, drift away in scenarios so avoidable it has been tempting to scream sense into Ferrari’s strategy crew from a million miles away.

And, brutally, nothing summed up the disparity in competence between Mercedes and Ferrari then Sunday’s grand prix in Mexico. Ferrari had both Hamilton and Leclerc in the top-two positions after the start, before an unnecessary tangle cost Hamilton two places and handed Leclerc a deserving five-second penalty. It gifted Verstappen the win. At one stage, an apoplectic Hamilton stated in no uncertain terms over the radio: “We have big problems. Big, big problems.”

Later, in the FIA press conference after coming home in second, he elaborated: "Before I joined this team, when I was in Mercedes, I watched and witnessed the back and forth between Charles and Carlos [Sainz] for several races where they were battling so much that the person ahead just pulled away, and they had the pace to actually win the race.

"But it's one thing when that's happening for fourth and fifth, as opposed to first and second, and you lose the win. That's significant. The guy's 28 (29) years old, so I don't think it's an age thing. I think it's a mentality thing. It's like 'do or die. Like either ‘I win or none of us do’, and it shouldn't be that.”

For Leclerc, whose tendency for crashes is sometimes overlooked, it should represent a line in the sand, as he heads to Brazil late this weekend after the birth of his daughter, Bianca. With a lucrative long-term contract, he has long been earmarked as Ferrari’s golden boy but needs to show more signs of maturity.

But he has time Hamilton does not, even if the Briton says he can see himself racing until he is 45. Given Mercedes’ dominance this year – at the start of a regulation phase which, usually, sees one outfit prosper above all others – the simple facts at this point in time are this. Forget the aura and the allure: Hamilton made the wrong call to join Ferrari 20 months ago.

It’s not all been the team’s fault; Hamilton himself has failed to deliver in key moments. Less so this year. But overall: one win, one pole and seven podiums out of 43 races is a shocking return. And only a dramatic upturn in Ferrari’s proficiency and aptitude, both in the cockpit and on the pit wall, will trigger a quickfire 180 on that statement next year.