Famous Formula 1 journalist Peter Windsor believes Lewis Hamilton hasn’t put the brakes on the way he’s used to in the past.
Hamilton’s famous move to Ferrari has been overwhelming so far, with his results hoping for a lot in the opening of the five rounds of the season.
The seven-time F1 World Champion struggled to adapt to the Ferrari SF-25 after spending the past 12 years with Mercedes.
One of the key areas of modern Grand Prix machine performance is braking. This gives you a knock-on effect on cornering.
Hamilton raced on carbon industry brake discs while at Mercedes, but had to adapt to Brembo’s braking system at Ferrari in 2025.
However, Windsor doesn’t believe that the change in suppliers is the root cause of Hamilton’s recent struggle, instead pointing to a change in British driving style.
“He’s very used to carbon industry brakes and went to Brembo, which is usually a softer pedal vibe than carbon industry,” Windsor told the podcast.
“Lewis has been around long enough. If someone had told me I think he’s having trouble getting used to Brembo, I would have told him he’d love Brembo.
“Obviously he feels that’s part of the problem, but I don’t think he’s braking the way he used to brake when he was at McLaren in 2007.
“I think he’s braking straight. He’s just looking for a great delay. He’s more complicated than the supplier because he doesn’t narrow down the brakes in and out of the brake pedal like in the carbon industry.
Hamilton has been praised in the past for his “short corner” skills. This usually requires a narrow line to reduce the distance involved.
However, Windsor feels that Britton has not been able to make the most of this capability after the introduction of ground-effect vehicles in 2022.
“He was a short corner driver like Charles (Leclerc),” explained Windsor. “Even five years ago, the three best drivers in the world were Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclair.
“The problem is that Lewis hasn’t driven in a short corner in the last three years at Mercedes, and he now captures the lack of touch with Ferrari in my surprise.
“In Ferrari, I thought I would soon return to Lewis, which we knew until 2021 before Mercedes really got worse, but he wasn’t and I thought he was still driving the same way.
“Lewis, what we saw in the Lap-by-Rap comparison, was trying to turn it on as soon as possible and look at the wall and slide it to the point where it was touching the wall.
“Charles goes to a short corner and operates the car in the middle of the car at the rotation point. By the time he does the full rotation, he’s already seen the exact point of the size of a 50p coin.
“In Lewis, he has to judge the force he is doing with what he is doing with his front and rear axles, so he is about to hit a wall, but it is far less difficult, much more difficult, and the error is much more difficult.
“At 40, he’s thinking more about it, so he’s leaving a bit of a margin. At 20, he wouldn’t have thought about it.