Ralf Schumacher has bluntly told  Lewis Hamilton and  Fernando Alonso that “it’s time” to retire at the end of the F1 2026 season.

The multi-time champions serve as Formula 1’s veteran figures, both representing the grid’s 40s club, but Schumacher firmly believes that both drivers need to step away and give young blood a chance. The recent comments made by both drivers suggests they are not going anywhere.

Ralf Schumacher urges Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso to retire

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After a harrowing first season with Ferrari, Hamilton returned for F1 2026 in a better place, both mentality, and on the track.

Hamilton secured his first Ferrari podium at the Chinese Grand Prix. However, the seven-time champion “won’t stand a chance” against his teammate Charles Leclerc across F1 2026, Schumacher predicts.

Speaking on Sky Deutschland’s Backstage Boxengasse podcast, Schumacher urged Hamilton to call it a day at the end of the season.

He made the same request to Aston Martin’s two-time world champion Fernando Alonso.

“Hamilton is in a better position again this year,” Schumacher, the six-time grand prix winner, began.

“But over the course of the season, he won’t stand a chance against Leclerc.

“It’s time – and I have to say the same about Fernando Alonso: Hamilton and Alonso have had a wonderful time in Formula 1. But now it’s time for both of them to vacate their cockpits at the end of the year and give young people a chance.”

In the opinion of Schumacher, Oliver Bearman “deserves” the opportunity to step up to Ferrari.

The Ferrari-backed Brit impressed in his first full season on the grid with Haas. That trend has continued into F1 2026, Bearman scoring 17 points across the opening four rounds.

“And I also believe that, if he gets the chance, he’ll even pose a challenge to Charles Leclerc,” Schumacher suggested on Bearman. “I’m pretty sure of that. So I’d say he’s actually better.”

Meanwhile, 13-time race winner David Coulthard recently suggested that Alonso is no longer as fast as he once was, which he called a natural development with the Spaniard turning 45 this summer.

Coulthard, via the Up To Speed podcast, had been talking of a waiting game to judge whether current championship leader Kimi Antonelli is truly “exceptional”.

“I didn’t have it, so I know what not having it will get you. And I want to see whether he’s got it.

“We know that Max [Verstappen] has it. We know that Lewis has it. Fernando, of course, hasn’t had the chance for a long time, but he had it, let’s say.

“We’ve got to assume, with the passing of time, he isn’t just as fast as he was. But he still is hungry. There’s no question about it.”

Lewis Hamilton still believes in himself

It was after that emotional first Ferrari podium in China that Hamilton fired back at his critics.

Hamilton said he continues to see negativity coming his way from “certain individuals” that did not experience “anywhere near the success that I’d had”.

Hamilton believed he demonstrated that he still has what it takes to “compete at the front” in Formula 1.

Fernando Alonso calls off F1 retirement

Heading into F1 2026, there was a strong suggestion that Alonso could be entering his final season on the grid.

However, speaking from last month’s Monaco Historic Grand Prix, Alonso went against that theory.

“The time will tell. I will feel it. At the moment, I don’t feel it is that time yet,” he said.

“I feel competitive, I feel motivated, I feel happy when I drive. So, yeah, hopefully not the last season.”