F1 legend snubs Lewis Hamilton as he names 'extraordinary' driver as his favourite on 2025 grid

Lewis Hamilton has had a difficult start to life with Ferrari and is yet to finish higher than fifth place in the 2025 F1 season.

Hamilton doesn't have a lot left to prove. Now 40, the English driver has won the world championship seven times and has stepped onto the podium more than 200 times in a glittering career.

He's finished four of five races this season. He crossed the line in tenth in Australia, seventh in Japan and Saudi Arabia, and fifth in Bahrain, leaving him in seventh place in the drivers' championship and contending with a car he needs to adapt to if he's to climb the standings.

Despite a frustrating start to 2025, F1 legend and two-time world champion Emerson Fittipaldi holds Hamilton in the highest regard.

The 78-year-old told AS: "It’s a challenge to join Ferrari and prove you can win a world championship with another team. It’s a dream for everyone to drive for them. I’ve never been able to drive for Ferrari.

"For them, [Hamilton] is an outstanding driver, very talented. He won the Chinese Sprint and works with [team principal Fred] Vasseur, as he has done for many years in F2 and F3."

But the Brazilian, who won the world championship in a Lotus in 1972 and with McLaren two years later, has named a different favourite on the 2025 grid and predicted that he'll be tough to beat in the drivers' championship this year.

Max Verstappen is third in the early standings (Image: Getty)

Red Bull top dog Max Verstappen is third in the nascent driver standings behind McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, and Fittipaldi likes his chances of claiming a fifth world title.

"I think Verstappen is at an exceptional level, in the prime of his career," added Fittipaldi.

"The race he had in Brazil last year was extraordinary. He’s a phenomenon and it won’t be easy for McLaren to compete with him."

Piastri took over the championship lead by winning Sunday's Saudi Arabia GP ahead of Verstappen, who started from pole but was hit with a five-second penalty for leaving the track on the first corner to keep Piastri behind him.

The next round takes F1 to Florida for the Miami GP over the first weekend in May.