The Saudi Grand Prix of Lewis Hamilton represents a first Nadir in his mandate Ferrari Formula 1 – and he fears that the rest of the 2025 season is not much better.
Hamilton was a second best of the Charles Leclerc team throughout Jeddah’s weekend, with a gap that cannot be explained only by his lack of affinity for this song (where he was the winner of the inaugural race in 2021) during the era of the ground effects that started in 2022.
Leclerc was 31 seconds ahead of Hamilton on arrival, largely due to having exploited his first passage on the average tires while Hamilton had trouble protecting his starting set.
This 31 -second gap was the largest between two teammates who finished the race on the same round. And for the only couple of teammate who ended on different laps, Lance Stroll would have been a projection of 22-23 seconds behind Fernando Alonso if he had been able to go 50.
Hamilton told Sky F1 “that there was not a second” that he was comfortable in the car during the race of Jeddah, that he finished seventh, adding: “Obviously, the car is able to be P3. Charles did an excellent job today. So I can’t blame him on the car.”
He struck a similar note in his session with the written press, saying that there was a positive “zero” to take away.
“Nothing positive from today. Except for Charles finishing on the podium, which is great for the team.
“(For my part) it was horrible. It was horrible. Not at all pleasant at all. I was just slipping.
Hamilton’s situation in Ferrari turned considerably from the Sprint victory summit in Shanghai last month and he said that he “had no response” to explain why the Shanghai sprint was such a success and, at the moment, such an aberrant value.
“Struggling to feel the car under me. But there is no special thing. There is nothing to say” hey, that’s the problem “.
Leclerc comparison
While Ferrari’s performance as a whole left a lot to be desired in 2025, in the intra-team battle, the pendulum has switched to Leclerc since this Shanghai sprint-and it was Leclerc who, at the back of his own dismay after the qualification of Jeddah, capitalized on the strong rhythm of the SF-25 race on Sunday.
“I mean, he has been driving this car for a long time, so he really knows it very well,” said Hamilton when he was asked if there was something he could picked up that Leclerc was doing differently.
“There is a lot in data, that’s for sure.
“I mean, honestly, as, it does not seem massively different in the data. I’m just more slowly in the corners.”
He also said: “We have slightly different configurations, I have to look at and see if this configuration is the way the car likes to be. Yes, he and his side certainly do a better job.”
An entire year of “pain”?
More worrying for himself and Ferrari, Hamilton has repeatedly transmitted a lack of confidence that he can fundamentally change the image this year.
“By qualifying, it is (a question of) me of performance extraction. In the race today, I tried AllAnd the car just didn’t want to go faster, “he summed up.
He said he didn’t expect to come and make a lot of difference. “I think I’m also going to fight Miami. I don’t know how long I will have trouble, but it’s really painful.”
And when asked if he was potentially put in place for more weeks and even months of “pain”, he said: “For the moment, there is no solution. So … that’s how it will be for the rest of the year. It will be painful.”
There was optimism before his passage from Mercedes to Ferrari that Scuderia’s cars in this time of F1 rules would be a better natural adjustment for him, and he was confirmed in the early stages of the season.
But Hamilton described the era of the field effect as “the worst” when asked for the race, although he said “I really don’t know” when asked if there was a fundamental incompatibility between him and these cars.
The F1 is launching a new set of rules next year and the Hamilton contract covers at least one season of these rules.
“I don’t know anything next year’s car, if I’m going to be honest,” he said when he was asked if at least 2026 would be a stay. “I don’t spend time thinking about it.
“Hope (it will be). Less soil effect, hope that things change a little.”
