F1’s beady-eyed social media fan base have been at it again reading into Lewis Hamilton’s activity far too much.

The seven-time champion has hardly set the track alight since getting behind the wheel of a Ferrari F1 car in 2025, but his most recent outing in Budapest led the 40-year-old to deliver an incredibly harsh assessment of his first season in red.

During the Hungarian GP weekend, Hamilton called himself ‘useless’ and even advocated for the Scuderia to replace him.

The F1 legend’s dejected comments understandably sparked concerns over whether he was going to leave Ferrari before 2026, potentially even retiring from the sport as a whole.

The timings of these comments unfortunately aligned with a pending announcement the Ferrari star had been teasing on his socials since late July: ‘follow the smoke’ a mysterious post read, teasing ‘08.08’, meaning an announcement would drop on August 8.

That day has now been and gone and what did Hamilton have to say? Just that the latest addition to his non-alcoholic drinks brand ‘Almave’ had been released.

F1 fans lost their minds thinking Hamilton was going to announce his retirement, but August 8 merely marked the reveal for Hamilton’s newest drink in his Almave line, Almave Humo.

Hamilton’s Almave release proves false alarm over retirement

When the official announcement finally dropped, it read: “There’s a story in the smoke. Introducing Almave Humo, a smoky non-alcoholic spirit made with Espadín agave harvested from the foothills of volcanoes in Puebla, Mexico.

“By adapting ancestral distillation techniques from the cradle of mezcal, Humo delivers the depth and intrigue of traditional smoky spirit, without the alcohol.

“For festive dinners and everyday celebrations, for moments of discovery and deep connection — Humo delivers sophisticated cocktails and authenticity — beyond proof.”

Hamilton fans flocked to the comments of the Instagram post, admitting that the struggling Ferrari star had given them a shock over what they believed to be his retirement post.

“LEWIS I SWEAR IF U SCARE ME LIKE THIS AGAIN,” one fan warned Hamilton, as another directed their shock at the former Mercedes star, writing: “YOU DONT KNOW THE HEART ATTACK I HAD BECAUSE I THOUGHT YOU WERE RETIRING!”

Thankfully, some Hamilton fans managed to keep their cool, with one social media user adding: “glad he didn’t retire.”

Now the secret over Hamilton’s new non-alcoholic spirit is out there, some fans felt safe admitting they weren’t fooled by the marketing stunt, with one confident social media user commenting: “No way people believed he was retiring.”

That is a sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with. I’d like to think that when the time does come for the F1 legend to retire, he will take a leaf out of Sebastian Vettel’s book and just drop an unedited video on social media announcing the bombshell news.

Or perhaps we’ll never get the luxury of an official announcement, perhaps Ferrari will simply stop responding to him over team radio altogether one day and Hamilton will just have to assume his time is up.