Jock Clear: Hamilton instant success at Ferrari 'would have belittled F1'

Last year, former Ferrari performance engineer Jock Clear watched Lewis Hamilton’s first season in red unfold with a familiar mix of empathy and perspective.

To the outside world, 2025 looked like a stunning failure: no Grand Prix podiums, a car that refused to be tamed, and a seven-time world champion often wearing the strain of it all.

To Clear, however, the pain of that campaign served a deeper purpose – one that reaffirmed just how unforgiving Formula 1 truly is.

Hamilton’s arrival at Maranello had been framed as destiny fulfilled: the sport’s most decorated driver joining its most storied team.

But romance counts for little once the visor goes down, and the SF-25 quickly exposed the brutal gap between expectation and reality.

Rather than seeing that as a stain on Hamilton’s legacy, Clear believes it was a necessary reminder that greatness in F1 is never guaranteed.

Success Is Never Instant in Formula 1

Clear, who worked closely with Hamilton during his dominant Mercedes years, urged patience as the season unravelled. History, he insists, is littered with examples of legends who needed time to bend Ferrari – and Formula 1 itself – to their will.

"I remind people that when Michael [Schumacher] went to Ferrari, it took the team five years before he won anything,” Clear told gambling site CasinoHawks.

“It doesn’t happen overnight and I said to a few people [in the] middle of the season, I know Lewis really had a tough time last year dealing with how difficult the challenge was.

”It’s reassuring to remind people how difficult F1 is. If Lewis arrived and just won an eighth championship, it sort of demeans or belittles the sport somewhat."

For Clear, the notion that Hamilton should have instantly conquered Ferrari misunderstands the essence of the sport. Formula 1, he argues, resists shortcuts – even for its greatest talents.

Frustration, Perspective and the Long Game

Clear also pointed to the wider paddock to illustrate how quickly judgments are made, and how often they prove premature.

“You look at Carlos at Williams. After five races, people were like: ‘Oh, what’s happened? I thought he was going to blow Alex Albon away,’”he said. “Look at him by the end of the year.

“It doesn’t happen overnight. I think part of that frustration for Lewis is probably that he knows that. But he just needs time.”

That understanding, Clear believes, is what separates momentary disappointment from long-term resolve.

Despite the visible frustration that followed Hamilton through the paddock in 2025, Clear is adamant that the Briton never arrived in Italy expecting an easy ride.

“Lewis is not going to give up just because 2025 was tough,” he said.

“He foresaw it being very tough. Hamilton will come back stronger and harder [in 2026], work on the development and do everything he can do to see the project through.”

• Read also: Coulthard fears Hamilton no longer ‘at his peak’

In Clear’s eyes, Hamilton’s bruising first year in scarlet did not diminish Formula 1 – it protected it.

By resisting a fairytale ending, the sport reminded everyone, including its greatest champion, that mastery is earned only through struggle, time and relentless belief.

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