Ralf Schumacher has a bizarre personal fixation on Lewis Hamilton, taking every chance to criticise his performances at Ferrari. It doesn’t matter how small the mistake is—Hamilton is immediately in his crosshairs. Driver errors happen in Formula 1 all the time, no matter how experienced or successful someone is. Yet Ralf seems obsessed with dragging Hamilton down, almost as if he’s desperate to protect his brother’s Ferrari legacy.

The mindset is petty and insecure. Hamilton has, at best, four years left in F1. Michael Schumacher needed three years just to win his first title with Ferrari, and his legacy there will never be eclipsed. Michael transformed a broken, directionless team and went on to dominate with five straight championships. That era belongs to him forever.

Hamilton doesn’t have the runway to replicate Michael’s Ferrari achievements, but he does still have time to win another world title—something many argue was stolen from him in 2021. Yes, his Ferrari start has been rocky. In some ways, it echoes Michael’s first year at Maranello. Even saddled with a poor car in 1996, Schumacher still pulled off three race wins against the dominant Williams FW16.

Hamilton’s debut Ferrari season, however, looks even tougher. A victory feels out of reach with McLaren’s stranglehold on the grid, and the SF25 is hampered by ride height issues that sap performance. But instead of acknowledging those problems, Ralf Schumacher—the professional whinger—decides Hamilton just needs to “be more professional.”

It’s a lazy, ignorant take from someone who seems determined to be stupid on purpose. But here’s what he actually said during the post-race debrief of the Italian Grand Prix:

“What I wanted to say is that Hamilton still has to be careful, because the speed wasn’t that bad, you could say.”

“The race-track wasn’t that challenging, but those mistakes at Zandvoort, two spins and then a penalty at the yellow flag before the start, P5.”

“I have to be honest, he needs to be a bit more professional. With his experience, that really shouldn’t happen to him, and he really has to be careful with things like that so that the fans continue to support him, because that could also annoy the Tifosi.”

“Nevertheless, when everything goes right for Lewis Hamilton, he’s fast. But, I’d say spinning twice in Zandvoort, then crashing his car into the wall and then that too, well, there was a bit too much going on that weekend, where you’d actually expect a bit more concentration from someone so experienced.”