"Don't know how we made the car worse": Hamilton after disappointing Qatar sprint

Written by Maham Mir

Speaking on the radio immediately after taking the chequered flag in Saturday’s Qatar sprint, Lewis Hamilton was left bewildered with the lack of pace in his Ferrari. Talking to his race engineer, Hamilton stated: “don’t know how we made the car worse”.

Having started the sprint from the pitlane with set-up changes made to his SF-25, Hamilton would have been hoping to have had a better feeling in the car. Unfortunately for the British driver, this was not to be as he spent all of the sprint at the back of the pack and unable to make an impression.

Ferrrari, having finished P13 and P17 in the final sprint of the season, failed to score points in a sprint event for the first time since Monza 2021. As a result, and with Mercedes and Red Bull scoring crucial points, they have fallen further back in the fight to claim the best of the rest title in the World Constructors’ Championship. 

However, Hamilton’s misery with his Ferrari did not begin with Saturday’s sprint. After an unfortunate spring qualifying on Friday where he was eliminated in SQ1 and qualified in P18, the seven time world champion expressed his despair in the media. 

Speaking after Friday’s disappointing session, he noted that the car, and all its struggles, felt “the same as always”. This disappointing result in both sprint qualifying and the sprint itself came off the back of another less than ideal weekend in Vegas where Hamilton qualified P20 on pure pace for the first time in his career.

His maiden season at Ferrari started optimistically and his best sprint result, and his best result in his SF-25 in any format, was a sprint win in Shanghai at the start of the season. However, since then, a seemingly downwards spiral has been unfolding as he's failed to reach the podium in any format.

When asked if the changes made to the car post sprint qualifying including the new wing introduced for better downforce helped, Hamilton’s dejected answer was: “No, clearly not.” Pressed further about if there were any positives to take into the sprint, his only answer was “the weather’s nice”.

Ahead of the penultimate race of the 2025 season, Hamilton and Ferrari will be hoping to find a way to end his maiden season on a high. However, despite the efforts both the driver and team will be putting in to make this a reality, it remains to be seen if any further pace can be found in the SF-25.