Hamilton 'should stop now', former F1 supremo Ecclestone firmly believes

Lewis Hamilton is going through an extremely challenging period.

Arriving at Ferrari with high expectations after deciding to leave Mercedes—the team with which he established himself as the most successful driver of all time—his first season so far in red can hardly be described as positive.

After fourteen Grands Prix, the seven-time world champion finds himself sixth in the drivers’ championship with just 109 points, zero wins, zero podiums, and zero pole positions, his best result being fourth place in Britain (excluding his sprint race win in China).

After yet another tough weekend in Hungary, ending with a Q2 elimination in qualifying and a twelfth-place finish in the race, some have begun speculating about a possible early retirement, despite him holding a multi-year contract with the Maranello team.

Commenting on Hamilton’s difficult period to the Daily Mail, former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone said: ''Lewis is very talented, was and probably still is. But like a lot of leading sports personalities when they reach the top, there is only one way to go, and it’s not a good direction. It’s only down.''

The British magnate believes his fellow countryman should retire — and in fact, says he should have done so quite some time ago: ''He may not think it but he will soon get used to doing other stuff away from motor racing in retirement. I think he should have done it a while ago.''

Finally, Ecclestone wrapped it up with a suggestion for the Brit: ''If I were Lewis, I would say to Ferrari that I wanted to be paid all my contract, in full.''

Speaking about who could potentially replace Hamilton, Ecclestone named two surprise candidates: ''If I could steal him, I’d take Isack Hadjar from Racing Bulls. He has done super well in his first year and is a great guy. I also rate our friend from Brazil (Bortoleto). He is talented. Both of them are sensible, too.''