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A former F1 driver has delivered a bleak assessment of Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari future after he described the seven-time world champion as ‘lost’.

Hamilton’s performance hit an additional low at the Spanish Grand Prix, where he lost fifth place on track to the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg and finished behind his team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Ferrari issued team orders during the opening stages of the race where they asked Hamilton to let a faster Leclerc through, which has led to a bleak verdict from former F1 driver Johnny Herbert whose assessment of Hamilton’s situation was far from positive.

“It just looks like Lewis Hamilton is lost, really lost. I don’t know if the raw pace that he’s always had throughout his career is there anymore,” Herbert said to InstantWithdrawalBettingSites.

“I thought, with the pure racing skill Hamilton had, he’d be able to drive around any problems with the car but he seems stuck in a hole. It’s not nice to see. It’s not the first time we’ve seen it in the sport, though.

“Nigel Mansell won his championship in 1992, went to America in 1993, came back in 1994 and it didn’t work anymore for him. It happened with Michael Schumacher too, when he had his break and came back, then he wasn’t the same Schumacher as before.”

Inside Hamilton’s woeful Ferrari debut

Whilst both Hamilton and Leclerc initially failed to extract pace out of the SF-25, in recent races the younger of the pair has managed to find performance in his Ferrari and has earned three podiums.

Meanwhile, Hamilton sits 23 points behind Leclerc in the drivers’ standings with only a distant sprint race win in China and a P4 result in Imola to show for himself in 2025 thus far.

Hamilton’s downturn in form has attracted significant attention, with F1 insiders all attempting to understand why the 40-year-old is struggling with Ferrari.

The champion’s former Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg has suggested that age is the main factor for Hamilton’s rough start with the Scuderia, particularly struggling in qualifying where he has been beaten by Leclerc on seven occasions in 2025.