Mattia Binotto was Ferrari team principal before Frederic Vasseur and previously spent more than 20 years serving the iconic Italian F1 team, but is now leading the Audi project

Lewis Hamilton has found life as a Ferrari driver tough this season(Image: Getty Images)

A former Ferrari chief has told the Italian team that they signed Lewis Hamilton “when he was already at the end of his career”. Mattia Binotto hopes to see his former outfit succeed but suggested he didn’t agree with the decision to sign Hamilton as a 40-year-old.

It has been a difficult season so far for the Brit, despite the early high of a maiden Ferrari victory in the Chinese Grand Prix Sprint race. He later added a podium in the second Sprint of the year in Miami, but his Grand Prix results have been underwhelming.

His best Sunday result so far in 2025 was fourth in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, a superb comeback drive which delighted the Tifosi gathered at Imola. But it has been difficult other than that and, after finishing sixth in Barcelona last time out, the seven-time F1 champion said it was one of the worst races he had experienced.

Hamilton also said the problem is “probably just me”, hinting that he might himself be worrying about whether he remains at the top of his game. He turned 40 in January and will be nearly 42 by the end of the 2026 campaign, for which he is already contracted.

And former Ferrari team principal Binotto said he thinks the Brit’s age is a problem. “Hamilton is of a certain age. Ferrari took him when he was already at the end of his career. The ideal would have been to have him a few years earlier,” he told Italian publication Automoto.

Binotto was axed by Ferari at the end of the 2022 season after four years as team principal. It brought to an end nearly 30 years of his service to the Maranello squad, having joined in 1995 as an engineer and worked his way up the ranks.

In August last year, it was announced that he had joined the Audi F1 project as chief technical officer at Sauber. He then briefly served as interim team principal earlier this year until Jonathan Wheatley started work on April 1, and is now the official head of the whole project, leading the Audi outfit alongside Wheatley.

Binotto still wants to see his former employer do well as both an ex-employee and an Italian F1 fan. And, despite his obvious misgivings about Hamilton, the 55-year-old said he still has faith that the Scuderia can get back on track.

He said: “From the outside, perhaps one shouldn’t even judge. It’s clear that the performance on the track and the results are not good at the moment.

“However, I know every single member of that team very well and I know that they are good, strong and capable. They will be able to improve the car and do well in the future and I believe that Ferrari can get some satisfaction this year.”