Lewis Hamilton insists he has no regrets about joining Ferrari, even though his first season with the Italian team has been extremely difficult. After a frustrating race in Las Vegas, where he was knocked out in Q1 with the slowest lap, Hamilton admitted he was unhappy and even said he wasn’t looking forward to next season. Now, he has stepped back from those comments.

Hamilton heads into the final two races of the year, starting with this weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix, still chasing his first podium in red. He is 74 points behind teammate Charles Leclerc and has faced several setbacks throughout 2025. In Las Vegas, he clawed his way back from 20th to finish 10th, which later became eighth after both McLaren cars were disqualified. Even so, he appeared downbeat when speaking to the media afterwards.

He explained that his comments came “in the heat of frustration”, saying: “I’d be surprised if the other drivers are excited about next year at the end of a season, because you usually don’t have a lot of energy at the end of a season. You’re looking forward to the time with family and stuff. But it’s just in the heat of frustration, often there’s a lot of frustration at the end of races when they haven’t gone well. I’m excited to see the team build next year and to continue to build on that.”

Hamilton has also firmly denied that he regrets signing with Ferrari. “I don’t regret the decision I made joining the team,” he said. “I know it takes time to build and grow within an organisation, and I expected that, so yes.”

However, he admits that Ferrari must improve if they want to take advantage of the major rule changes coming in 2026. “I definitely think we have a lot of work to do, for sure,” he said. “Over [the] winter, we’ll analyse the season and there’s lots of improvements we need to make collectively. But I think no one is under any illusion in the team that we want to play our part, and I believe that we can. So, yeah, I’m hoping we implement and make those changes along with hopefully a better package next year.”