Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton replacement? Champion driver destined for F1 as British star calls for his own axing

Lewis Hamilton, Hungary GP, Ferrari, 2025, Generic — Photo: © IMAGO

Racing Superstars

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton replacement? Champion driver destined for F1 as British star calls for his own axing

Ferrari have lots of young driver talents waiting in the wings

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Tuesday 5 August 2025 18:42 Updated: 21:09

Just hours after Ferrari star Lewis Hamilton had described himself as 'useless' at the Hungarian Grand Prix last weekend, one of the Scuderia's young drivers was celebrating an early championship triumph.

After nine rounds of the 2025 F3 championship, Rafael Camara has been crowned the F3 champion, following in the footsteps of the likes of Gabriel Bortoleto and none other than F1's championship leader, Oscar Piastri.

It was a commanding victory during a rain-affected feature race at the Hungaroring that sealed the championship for the young Brazilian, and he has firmly put himself on the radar for a potential future seat in F2 and, who knows? Maybe even F1.

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Camara is just 20 years old, and has been a member of the Ferrari driver academy since 2021, when he was snapped up alongside British star Oliver Bearman.

Rafael Camara won the 2025 F3 championship

Following a successful rookie season with Haas in 2025, Bearman is one of the leading candidates to one day become a Ferrari F1 star, once fellow Brit Hamilton opts to call time on his record-breaking F1 career.

Hamilton is currently contracted until the end of the 2026 season, but he issued an incredibly downbeat interview following Hungarian GP qualifying, where he suggested that his own team should replace him even sooner.

"It's me, every time," the former Mercedes star told Sky Sports' Rachel Brookes. "I’m useless, absolutely useless.

"The team has no problem. The car’s on pole, they probably need to change their driver."

At 40 years of age, there are a number of younger racing stars who are queuing up behind Hamilton itching for a chance with F1's most successful team in history, including now the name of Camara after his championship victory with one race to spare.

Who is Rafael Camara?

Camara was born in Recife, Brazil in 2005, and by 2014, the youngster was already racing in Karting championships.

The young Brazilian raced in karting for eight years, before competing in the FDA World Scouting Finals, where he was scouted and added to Ferrari's driver academy.

Camara won three separate karting titles during the 2021 season, prompting the move to Ferrari's academy and single-seater racing.

Since making the switch to single-seater racing in 2022, Camara has not finished outside of the top five in a championship season in any of the eight championships he has raced in.

He claimed victory in 2024 in the Formula Regional European Championship, prompting a promotion to F3 for 2025, to race with Trident Racing.

That first season in F3 has yielded five pole positions, four race victories, and now a championship victory with one race to spare to become the most dominant F3 champion since Piastri in 2020.

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