Dream move drives Hamilton to despair

Lewis Hamilton's dream move to Ferrari has resulted in a nightmare first season.

The 40-year-old British driver's quest to win a record-breaking eighth Formula One title with his new team failed dismally, with Hamilton not even getting on a single Grand Prix podium.

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 during this campaign has, at times, been expressed in curt team radio exchanges with Ferrari race engineer Riccardo Adami. Hamilton sarcastically told him to "have a tea break" during the Miami GP in May.

Confidence rocked

"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 an F1 driver with a record 105 wins and 104 pole positions to his name.

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."