Lewis Hamilton's fate sealed with 'failed marriage'

Lewis Hamilton's move to Ferrari was tipped to be the best thing to happen to the sport for decades.

His decision to leave Mercedes after 12 seasons, eight constructors' championships and six drivers' titles shocked the paddock, but after 14 rounds of his maiden season in red, Italian media have labelled the partnership a 'failed marriage'.

In a report which added Hamilton to Italy's growing list of disappointing sports pairings, La Gazzetta dello Sport wrote: "Bad marriages. Consumed by regret, waiting for the consequences of bitterness. Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari: we had pursued each other so much. The right man in the wrong place, perhaps even at the wrong time, but who knows if he really was the right man or if he was the wrong one, only no one had told him. There's no way out.

"When a sporting marriage fails, you have to press rewind and go back to the beginning. Before the pressure, before the chassis, before the misguided strategies."

The Italian publication went on to state how Hamilton's struggles at the iconic F1 team are reminiscent of how a legend on two wheels, Valentino Rossi, never quite lived up to expectations after his move to Ducati in MotoGP.

But a comparison that should perhaps serve as a more relevant warning to Hamilton is the failings of two-time champion, Fernando Alonso.

The Spaniard also struggled in red after moving to Ferrari under similar circumstances to Hamilton- off the back of previous championship success and hungry for more- though those titles never came.

Is Ferrari's reputation a curse to Hamilton?

Hamilton himself has admitted that he doesn't want his run in red to end like the champions before him who tried and failed to return to championship-winning status with the Maranello-based outfit.

Having secured the 2005 and 2006 drivers' titles with Renault, Alonso fell for the allure of Ferrari's iconic reputation and made the switch to the Scuderia for the 2010 campaign.

Alonso then spent multiple years with Ferrari, claiming P2 in the drivers' standings behind Sebastian Vettel in 2010, 2012 and 2013- always the bridesmaid, never the bride.

It seems Vettel didn't learn a lesson from his rival however and after four consecutive championships with Red Bull, the German also fled to Ferrari after experiencing a drop off in form with the Milton Keynes F1 team in 2014.

Hamilton is already shaping up to follow the champions curse at Ferrari and though it could be argued that 2026 may lean more in his favour, time is ticking for the 40-year-old to prove the worrying trend wrong.

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