Rosberg: Hamilton has to continue

Hamilton is undoubtedly an all-time great in the sport with his seven F1 Drivers' Crowns, 105 wins, and 104 pole positions, but his highly-anticipated debut season with Ferrari was horrible to the extent that his future has come under question.

One person who knows Hamilton very well is Nico Rosberg, as the pair grew up racing each other from their karting days until they became Mercedes teammates in 2013, and they went on to race together till the end of the 2016 season.

In 2016, Rosberg managed to beat Hamilton to the Title, only for him to announce his retirement merely days after clinching the Championship in Abu Dhabi, later explaining that he could not go through the intensity of that campaign again.

Thus ended a partnership that turned sour on many occasions, and while Hamilton went on to win four more Titles with Mercedes, Rosberg became an F1 pundit.

In that role, and over the weekend of the 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where Hamilton qualified 16th and raced to eighth, Rosberg commented on his former teammate's plight with Ferrari.

"He's faced all the challenges in the world already," the German said. "This is not the biggest, but this is an incredibly hard one. He's stuck because he can't quit. That would be a big loss of face.

"It's horrible, unfortunately. He's the greatest of all time, and it's not a worthy end to the incredible legacy, and that's painful for him.

"His car hasn't been good, and I wouldn't want to be in his position," Rosberg maintained, adding that Hamilton should not retire.

He explained: "I think he has to continue. Stopping now is not cool. He only just started this Ferrari project. To give up after only one season doesn't work.

"He has to continue, give it another shot, and hope he feels comfortable in that next-year car. Maybe the car is a good car? This year's car is not great."

Hamilton's fall from grace began in 2022 when the outgoing ground-effect regulations came into effect, as Mercedes failed to grasp the concept from the start and never recovered as the regulations matured, always producing cars that were unpredictable, inconsistent, and highly sensitive to the slightest of changes in racing conditions.

Before that, in 2021, Hamilton was still in top form, racing Max Verstappen hard that year, with their season-long, bitter battle ending in that season's finale in Abu Dhabi when the Dutchman emerged victorious after a controversial Safety Car period.

Since then, and with Mercedes struggling, Hamilton seemed to have lost something, with suggestions claiming he did not get his head around driving the ground effect cars, something Mercedes boss Toto Wolff once pointed out.

But with the new regulations in 2026 and with the new cars less reliant on ground effect, Rosberg sees a chance for Hamilton to bounce back.

"The big thing is the regulations are changing," he said. "That's his huge hope. It's a reset. The car could be a winning car next year.

"He could suddenly feel much more comfortable in the car. He hasn't felt comfortable this year."

He also rightfully added that Hamilton, a known brilliant qualifier, should work on improving his qualifying pace, an area in which he was destroyed by teammate Charles Leclerc in 2025, keeping in mind his numerous Q1 exits.

Rosberg pointed out: "His great struggle this year was qualifying pace. In the race, there were flashes of brilliance that we kept seeing.

"It's just qualifying pace, and with the car being so different next year, maybe he can find some of that old magic again in qualifying," he concluded.

Hamilton has been back at Maranello following the end of the season meeting with the staff.

(Quotes from Sky Sports F1)