PARIS — Lewis Hamilton’s dream move to Ferrari resulted in a nightmare first season.The 40-year-old British driver’s quest to win a record-breaking eighth Formula 1 title with his new team failed dismally, with Hamilton not even getting on the podium in a Grand Prix race.Matters became so frustrating that at one point Hamilton suggested Ferrari should replace him with another driver.Australian driver Jack Brabham was 40 when he won the F1 title in 1966, but Hamilton fell well short of matching that feat.Hamilton won a short-format sprint race in China in March, but in the 24 main F1 races did not finish higher than fourth. He took no pole positions and placed a disappointing sixth in the F1 standings, a sizable 86 points behind his teammate Charles Leclerc in fifth.Overall, the former Mercedes star has won only two F1 races over the past four seasons.His frustration has at times been expressed in curt team radio exchanges during this campaign with Ferrari race engineer Ricciardo Adami. Hamilton sarcastically told him to “have a tea break” during the Miami GP in May.“ I’m useless, absolutely useless,” Hamilton told British broadcaster Sky Sports after a disappointing qualifying session at the Hungarian GP in early August. “The team have no problem. You’ve seen (Leclerc’s) on pole. So they probably need to change driver.”A few weeks later he sounded more upbeat.“I just really want to focus on getting back to that enjoyment,” Hamilton said. “I joined the team that I’ve always dreamed of driving for.”But the season nose-dived further for Hamilton. He made uncommon errors for a driver who owns FI records of 105 wins and 104 pole positions.He was eliminated from Q1, the first section of qualifying, for the last three races of the season and did not qualify in the top 10 for four consecutive races. He also crashed in the third practice at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last weekend due to a driver error, losing control of the car’s rear and sliding into the barriers.“I don’t have the words to describe the feeling that I have inside,” Hamilton said on Saturday after the crash. “An unbearable amount of anger and rage.”Qualifying problems persisted for Hamilton. In July, he qualified 16th at the Belgian GP after his best lap time was scrapped for going off track. The day before, he was 18th in qualifying for the sprint race following a spin.Popular ReadsEarlier that same week, however, Hamilton had spoken with determination and authority. He described holding “ crunch time ” talks with Ferrari’s leaders to demand improvements.“I’ve sat with John (Elkann, Ferrari’s president), Benedetto (Vigna, CEO) and Fred (Frédéric Vasseur, team principal) in several meetings,” Hamilton said at Spa-Francorchamps …
