Lewis Hamilton says he will ‘unplug from the matrix’ during the Formula 1 winter break ahead of 2026 season

Lewis Hamilton says he will “unplug from the matrix” during the Formula 1 winter break after a challenging first season at Ferrari.

Hamilton failed to finish on the podium for the first time in an F1 campaign and finished 86 points behind Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc in the Drivers’ Championship.

Super' Hamilton finds backing from this Ferrari legend despite 2025 struggles

The 40-year-old, who has previously described 2025 as “the worst season ever” and a “nightmare” will completely switch off from F1 following Tuesday’s tyre test in Abu Dhabi until the weeks leading up to pre-season testing at the end of January.

“At the moment I’m only looking forward to the break,” said Hamilton after he recovered to eighth place at Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, having started in 16th.

“Just to disconnecting, not speaking to anyone. No one will be able to get in touch with me this winter. I won’t have my phone with me and I’m looking forward to that. Completely unplug from the matrix.”

Asked if he had been without his phone before for such a period, Hamilton said: “No, I’ve generally always had it around. But this time, it’s going in the freaking bin.”

Hamilton suffered four consecutive eliminations in the first part of qualifying to conclude 2025 as he was last in Las Vegas qualifying for the first time on pure pace in his career, went out in SQ1 and Q1 in the Qatar Sprint weekend, then failed to reach Q2 again in Abu Dhabi.

The Ferrari driver said he felt an “unbearable amount of anger and rage” after his latest Q1 knockout but says his fans and family have kept him going this year.”I’ve had amazing support from so many people that have travelled around the world, sending messages,” he told Sky Sports F1.

“My fans have been the thing that have kept me going, they really have been the rock. My mum has been phenomenal and my dad and my family. I would say, just luckily, I’ve got those good people around me.

“I see young kids, adults rooting me on and reminding me why I do what I do and not to give up which I’m really appreciative of.”

Vasseur: The season has been difficult since Bahrain

Ferrari had high hopes going into 2025 after they narrowly missed out on the Constructors’ Championship to McLaren and were buoyed by the arrival of Hamilton at the team.

However, team principal Frederic Vasseur says it became clear early on that Ferrari were in for a tough season and they decided to stop development in April.

He said: “The season was difficult overall but we have to split the performance of the weekend and the performance of the season and the development of the team long-term.

“Honestly, the season was difficult but it was true from Day 1 in Bahrain that the pace was not magic. Then the start of the season was very difficult for us because of the disqualifications in race two in China. We lost 25 points and we started the season on the back foot. After three or four races, McLaren were over 100 points ahead. When the target is to win, you are a bit on the back foot.

“But we are competitors. We want good results, we want to win races and a couple of times in the season we had a very good recovery. We had one after the summer break, the pace was improving.

“But we struggled this season with details because at the end of the day, what we have to keep in mind, a small mistake or not being in the right window and you are out in Q1 and the weekend after you are P6 or P7. McLaren and Max [Verstappen], at the end of the season, had a small delta that they could cope with an issue.”