Déjà vu for Hamilton as Ferrari struggles echo his Mercedes misery
F1
Lewis Hamilton left Saudi Arabia in a downbeat mood after finishing 30 seconds behind Charles Leclerc. Like in 2024, the Briton is struggling to find answers
“I don’t know how long I’ll struggle for. At the moment, there’s no fix. It’s going to be painful.”
That was Lewis Hamilton‘s dim outlook for the upcoming races after finishing in a very distant seventh place in the Saudi Arabian GP. More significantly, however, was the gap to Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc, who crossed the finish line over 30 seconds in front of the Briton.
Hamilton said after the race that he had literally zero positives to extract from it, as his mood swung back to a fatalist tone following what he had labelled as a positive step in Bahrain.
“I just lacked grip, lacked good balance and was just fighting the car every corner. Nothing I did worked.”
The highlight of Hamilton’s first season with Ferrari has been a surprise victory in the Chinese GP sprint, but he hasn’t had much more to celebrate otherwise.
In the last three races, he has been outqualified and outscored by Leclerc, and his 30-second deficit in Sunday’s race was the low point of the Japan-Bahrain-Saudi Arabia triple-header.
A downbeat Hamilton had no answers for his problems at Jeddah
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It’s not been that unusual for Hamilton to sound despondent in recent times, even going as far as declaring “I’m definitely not fast anymore” during last year’s Qatar Grand Prix.
The seven-time champion had a bit of a rollercoaster final season at Mercedes in 2024, and similarities are starting to be noticeable not just in the way Hamilton responds to his tough days, but also in his struggles to find answers.
Last year, Hamilton had difficulties getting the Mercedes W15 in the right set-up window to extract the maximum from it, a problem that was exacerbated in qualifying. The Briton was outqualified 24-6 by George Russell during the 2024 season including sprint events, the latter securing four pole positions to the former’s zero.
As pointed out by Mercedes boss Toto Wolff last year, Hamilton’s style hasn’t really worked with this generation of F1 car, as he brakes too late and attacks corners too aggressively, something the current cars often don’t forgive.
Hamilton’s final season at Mercedes was also a rollercoaster
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At times during his 2024 season, Hamilton was clearly at a loss to explain his lack of pace, something that is already happening this year too.
“I’m struggling to feel the car beneath me. It’s no particular thing. Nothing to say: ‘Hey, this is the issue’,” Hamilton said in Saudi Arabia.
With the triple-header now behind, Hamilton and Ferrari have two weeks before the next race in Miami, but the British driver was also downbeat about the prospect of making any progress.
Asked if he thought the time between Saudi Arabia and the next race in Miami would help him find some answers, he said: “If you want to look at it positively yes, but honestly I don’t think so. It’s not gonna make any difference.”
Like last year’s Mercedes, the 2025 Ferrari appears to have a very narrow performance window, a fact that has been highlighted by its inconsistency so far.
It’s still relatively early days for Hamilton and Ferrari and, despite his despondent tone, there is still time before the alarm bells start ringing at Ferrari.
The pressure on Hamilton is somewhat eased by the fact that the Scuderia is still trying to figure out where it stands in the pecking order, but it won’t be too long before the team needs to ask itself some hard questions if the gap between Leclerc and Hamilton continues to be as large as it was at Jeddah.
