Mika Hakkinen believes that if Lewis Hamilton really suspects he has lost his advantage, he should speak to Ferrari.

Hamilton moves from Mercedes to Ferrari for the 2025 F1 championship, hoping to recapture his magic after a difficult season alongside George Russell in the W15.

While Hamilton’s race-day performances remained as good as ever, the seven-time F1 world champion struggled in qualifying alongside Russell.

While there were occasional extenuating circumstances, such as incidents or experimentation with set-ups, Russell finished 19-5 to Hamilton in qualifying and 5-1 in the Sprint classification, a resounding season-ending victory for the younger British driver.

Hamilton has been open in assessing his qualifying as a weakness in 2024, often expressing bewilderment as to why he was struggling to maintain pace over a single lap, and made a telling admission in Qatar when put to him that the problems must have stemmed from factors other than himself.

“Who knows? I’m definitely not fast anymore,” he said.

Hamilton has signed to race for Ferrari in F1 in 2025, and the big question for Hamilton, who turns 40 this month, is whether his problems have been due to an inability to connect with the Mercedes in his final year, or whether issues with his own speed are here to stay.

Two-time F1 world champion Mika Hakkinen asked himself similar questions in 2001 when, after winning back-to-back titles in 1998 and 2000 before a narrow defeat to Michael Schumacher in 2000, he realised his natural speed was moving away from him.

Asked if he can see some of the same traits in Hamilton today that he himself sensed in 2001, Hakkinen offered his perspective on the situation.

“Well, I’ll tell you something, I retired in 2001 and, in that year, I started to lose my edge,” he told PlanetF1.com exclusively.

“Sometimes it was very fast. Sometimes it wasn’t there.

“I lost two or three tenths and those two or three tenths are a big, big problem.

“So, at that moment, I decided to say to the team: ‘Thank you, this has been an incredible experience and the journey of my career and my life in Formula 1, but now, for me, it’s time to step aside.’

“It was a very important decision. But that was me.

“It’s impossible to comment on what’s going on with Lewis, what’s going on in his mind and what’s going on at the moment, why the performance is not there at 100 percent.

“I’m not the right person to answer for that, it’s Lewis, but that was my story.”

If Hamilton suspects he is losing his edge, Hakkinen said it was his responsibility to be honest with his new team.

“If something similar has happened to you, you need to speak up,” he said.

“He is the right person to answer that, but he has now committed to the future.

“So I’m sure he’ll work on it to get things right for this year.”

Hamilton’s tenure at Ferrari is reported to begin with four days of testing in an older Ferrari at Fiorano and Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya this month, before the new car, called Project 677, is revealed next month ahead of official pre-season testing in Bahrain.

Eddie Jordan: If I were Ferrari, I’d find a way out of Lewis Hamilton deal

Former F1 team boss Eddie Jordan is one of the names who remains unconvinced Hamilton is still at his best, and the Irishman said Hamilton’s own admission of doubting his speed was all the evidence he needed to hear.

“If you don’t believe 100 percent, you’re screwed. Do you understand that?” Jordan said on the Formula For Success podcast.

“Because belief, 99.9 percent of the time, means there’s that little, tiny thing in there that hits you in the head and makes you think, ‘Oh, I don’t really have that confidence. I don’t really have the ability. ’

“And the moment I heard Lewis say, I’m not fast enough anymore, I think those were the words.

“Honestly, if I were Ferrari, I would say that we have to close the book and find a way out. That’s all.”

Those comments sparked quite a backlash, Jordan revealed on a subsequent podcast, who explained his reasoning in more detail afterward.

“Oh my God, I got so angry for saying that I thought Lewis shouldn’t go to Ferrari because of what he said,” he said.

“And when people say things like, ‘I don’t think I’m fast enough anymore,’ I mean, that sticks in my head.