Lewis Hamilton's move to Ferrari? It's been a total disaster in the 2025 F1 season.

The real kicker? It could sting even more if Mercedes, the team he left, starts winning in F1 2026.

Is Lewis Hamilton regretting his Ferrari choice?

Tough call.

Calling it a mistake ignores his reasons for leaving Mercedes back then.

Basically, he wanted to ditch the Abu Dhabi 2021 vibes, get away from Mercedes' underperforming years, get a fresh start, and change the mood at the end of his career.

He was searching for something more, wanting to try Ferrari before quitting F1.

Love him or hate him, there was something cool about a top athlete following his heart near the end of his career and finally going after a long-time dream.

It hasn't gone as planned, mainly because the car trouble he had at Mercedes—a flawed design from the start—is the same problem he's facing at Ferrari.

So, it seems like he's the problem.

Why not? The same issues followed him from team to team, car to car.

Basically, there were many reasons—not all about winning—for Hamilton signing with Ferrari in late 2023/early 2024.

Judging it just by race results—though that's the main thing—ignores why he even wanted to drive for Ferrari.

So, from that angle, maybe he doesn't regret it.

But what about his dream to win that eighth title?

That's where it gets tricky.

Leaving Mercedes after two losing seasons in 2022/23 seems a bit quick, especially now that 2026 and the new rules are coming.

Who knows? Maybe Ferrari will nail the new rules next season. Maybe.

But it sounds like Mercedes might, with rumours saying they're getting ready for 2026 earlier than others.

Hamilton has said more than once this season that he wants to end his Ferrari stint well and not be like Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, champs who didn't win the title with Ferrari.

The thing is, Fernando and Seb started okay at Ferrari.

Alonso and Ferrari were good until he lost the title at Abu Dhabi in 2010, and he never really got over it.

Vettel, though, was doomed from the start since the bosses who hired him were gone when he arrived.

But his three wins in 2015 were a good start before things went downhill after a tough 2016 season.

Hamilton's Ferrari time, however, has been rough since the SF-25 came out in February, and he's already at his breaking point.

The fact that they seem annoyed with each other so early suggests this can't be fixed.

Maybe Hamilton's real mistake was not admitting that his only shot at an eighth title was gone in the mess of Abu Dhabi 2021.

If he'd been more real with himself—admitted he's getting older and just wanted a blast in the red car and then sayonara, as Mark Webber said about Vettel in 2014—instead of focusing on another title, this would be easier for everyone.

The worst thing for him now?

Watching Mercedes, the car he left, win the title with George Russell driving next season.

Now that would be the ultimate insult.

Think Hamilton regrets his Ferrari move now? Just wait until 2026.

George Russell thinks 2025 was his best F1 season ever, and he hinted that Lewis Hamilton kind of helped make it happen.

Russell said that when he was teammates with Hamilton, the seven-time champ, he really wanted to test his own limits, but it bit him in the butt. Now that Hamilton's with Ferrari and Russell is the main guy at Mercedes, he's dialled it back a bit, and he thinks it's helped his results.

After racing for Williams for three seasons, Russell got the call-up to Mercedes for 2022. In the next three years, he beat Hamilton in points twice, in 2022 and 2024.

With Hamilton moving to Ferrari, Russell became the team leader for 2025, with teenage rookie Kimi Antonelli as his teammate.

Russell did well, grabbing wins in Canada and Singapore as part of a consistently good season.

Media outlets asked Russell if he thought 2025 was his best F1 season so far.

"Yeah, I think so," he said.

For sure, my most solid in terms of performance, my head was in the right place, and I made the fewest mistakes. So yeah, overall, it's been great.”

Someone pointed out that he seemed to make the fewest big mistakes in 2025, and they asked him why he thought that was.

He said that Hamilton's leaving Mercedes made him go back to his old self after trying to push himself to the limit against the seven-time champ.

"I think that's just how I've always been, even before F1, and it helped me win championships," Russell said about making fewer mistakes.

But when I was with Lewis, I just felt like I wanted to push myself to see if I had more in me, to go past the limit and see what would happen.

Because in '23, I wasn't happy just fighting for podiums. I wanted to push harder to try and get a standout result, instead of just settling for a podium or fourth place.

That kind of came back to bite me. So I just chilled out a bit this year, and that probably helped me get better results.

Russell and Antonelli both signed new deals to stay at Mercedes for 2026, when the new car and engine rules are coming.

Antonelli bounced back from a bad slump in the middle of the season and kept Mercedes' trust. Russell thinks the Italian will improve even more next season.

It's always interesting to have a new teammate, just to see how they do things within the team, Russell said.

And he's a young kid with a lot of energy, which is really cool to see. And he's got a really good vibe with the people in the team, which is great.

But in our sport, it always comes down to what you do on the track.

But he's definitely shown he's got some high speed. So I'm sure he'll keep getting better next year, and you'll probably see those good moments more often.