Is Lewis Hamilton fighting the car

Written by Caitlyn Gordon, Edited by Meghana Sree

The start of 2024 saw the shocking news that Lewis Hamilton would make the switch from silver to red. The move was a global sensation, with fans and pundits alike looking forward to the new era.

Ferrari contended for race wins and podiums consistently in 2024, with the team securing five victories and narrowly missing out on the Constructors’ Championship to McLaren.

Looking into 2025, the promise for Hamilton to have a race car with which he could contend for wins alongside teammate Charles Leclerc was the centre of the build-up to the long-awaited season.

However, that fairytale hasn’t materialised yet as of the beginning of the 2025 season for Hamilton. The Briton has faced several setbacks throughout the past five rounds — from missing pace and lack of communication to technical infringements and the intense pressure that comes with being a Ferrari driver.

From Hope to Despair

Pre-season testing went underway in Bahrain, and with it, those promises of a championship contending year began unraveling.

The start to the testing began with hope, and the Briton put in respectable times across the board. That was until Hamilton ran his first full race simulation at the end of Friday’s session, where an issue was spotted. Ferrari noticed an “anomaly with the telemetry,” and called in Hamilton to end the session, raising eyebrows at what the problem could be.

Hamilton spoke to the media following the end of the session, concluding there was “work to do to improve” the SF-25. Looking not to dwell on testing, the race went underway in Australia, but rising doubts continued when both himself and Leclerc struggled.

Miscommunication Over the Radio

In addition to the Ferrari pair reporting how the balance was challenging, Hamilton was having other difficulties too. This time it was instances of miscommunication and frustration with his race engineer, Riccardo Adami.

A late downpour at Albert Park saw Ferrari make a gamble and opt to leave Hamilton out. However, this turned out to be the wrong call when Hamilton began struggling with his tyres. Eventually the team chose to come in for intermediates — but the decision was made too late and the Briton had already lost a position to Oscar Piastri.

"I felt like I was in the deep end today – just everything is new,” Hamilton explained.

“From the first time I was driving this car in the rain, the car was behaving a lot different to what I've experienced in the past, the power unit, all the steering functions — all the things are thrown to you and you're trying to juggle them.

“They [Ferrari] didn't say more was coming [rain], so then all of a sudden more came, so I think it was just lacking that bit of information at the end.”

He concluded his debut weekend with Ferrari in tenth overall, marking a disappointing start to the season, especially after much hope of the Prancing Horse being one of the strongest title contenders.

Technical Infringement Setbacks

The next weekend in Shanghai was an optimistic one for Hamilton who is notably known for his record around the circuit.

The disappointment from the previous weekend turned into hope, when Hamilton claimed his maiden victory in any format with Ferrari during the Sprint race.

After a difficult outing in Australia, the win in China was much needed to bounce back and build confidence. Later that day, Hamilton secured sixth for the Grand Prix with Leclerc ahead in fifth.

However, in a devastating turn of fortunes for the Scuderia, the confidence from Saturday quickly dwindled away when both Ferraris were under investigation for technical infringements. The stewards ruled both cars were to be disqualified — Leclerc’s for being underweight by one kilogram and Hamilton for an excessively worn skid plank.

Yet even before the disqualification, Hamilton was unhappy with his performance.

The seven-time World Champion spoke his mind in the media pen, stating that the car was “terrible” after post-Sprint adjustments.

Those adjustments included changes to the balance to help with tyre degradation for the upcoming 56 laps. But instead of delivering improvements, the changes backfired, worsening the handling on the car and causing intense oversteer due to fuel loads dropping.

Ride-Height Woes

Finishing the first two rounds of the season, the paddock headed to Japan.

Following on from the previous week's disqualification, Ferrari opted to run their car higher.

Hamilton hasn’t been a stranger to different ride-heights with his previous three seasons at Mercedes plagued by constant changes.

“Yes, we are running higher than we would like, but I don’t know if everyone is in the same boat in that respect,” Hamilton said, expressing his disapproval to Sky Sports.

“Particularly, after the last race, we’re higher than we want to be. It’s usually the knock-on effect from a weekend like we had before.”

For another weekend in a row, Hamilton struggled in Qualifying. The Briton lined up on the grid in eighth, over six tenths behind Max Verstappen’s pole position time and three-tenths behind Leclerc, who lined up in fourth.

The result once again highlighted a common pattern that was beginning to emerge in the gap of performance between the pair over a one lap deficit.

“For me, we went in different directions with the setup, and for me, I had a lot of understeer and just couldn’t dial it out throughout qualifying,” Hamilton said to Sky Sports after the session.

Any signs for a more positive Sunday all fell apart when Hamilton couldn’t fully extract pace from the car. He finished the race in seventh overall, while Leclerc held onto fourth.

After the race Hamilton spoke to the media about how Ferrari had identified an issue with one of its components, which was causing Hamilton to struggle with pace.

Upgrade Gamble

The much anticipated upgrade package for Ferrari came in Bahrain. The Scuderia brought in a new floor, to extract more performance from the car.

Furthermore, Ferrari introduced a reshaped boat-tail, expanded tunnel volume, and a refined floor edge loading — all of which were designed to gain smoother airflow to the diffuser, creating more vorticity control. Another change was made to the rear wing pillar in an effort to increase rear-end stability.

As Free Practice went underway, Hamilton reported that he was happy with the new upgrades, praising the team. But as Qualifying concluded, a similar trend continued with Hamilton unable to get the most performance out of the car. Hamilton lined up in ninth, while Leclerc started on the second row for the second consecutive weekend.

"It's just about my performance, poor performance. There's no reasons, [I'm] just not doing the job," Hamilton said, not sugar-coating his performance.

He added: “I think I've been driving a certain style and a certain way with the same team for such a long time, and I've moved to a new car and it requires such a different driving style and settings.

"I'm using engine braking, which we've never used in my previous years. Much different brakes. This car just requires a much different driving style so I'm adjusting to that and I think I am slowly getting it into my head.”

After the difficult Saturday, the tide changed on Sunday with a positive outcome. Hamilton began the race in ninth, but fought his way up to finish in fifth, behind Leclerc.

This brought the weekend to an uplifting close, with the Briton seemingly finding the much needed confidence to extract some performance out of the car and matching the pace of Leclerc. It looked like Hamilton was finally coming to grips with the car that he has been battling with since February.

Would this momentum be carried into the fifth round in Saudi Arabia?

False Hope

Hamilton entered the weekend with a new found confidence, telling the media that he believed he had “figured the car out.” But a harsh reality check was about to hit Hamilton during Free Practice.

Hamilton couldn’t break into the top ten and finished FP 2 in 13th and the third one in 12th. Then, continuing the trend of disappointing Qualifyings, Hamilton finished the session in seventh, sixth tenths behind his teammate lining up once again in fourth.

"[It's been] challenging as always in Qualifying for me," Hamilton said following the session. "I've been nowhere all weekend and 13th I think in almost every session. So honestly, I feel grateful to have got to Q3 and P7.

"Not a spectacular last lap but I've been making improvements all weekend. I needed a better lap at the end but as I said, I'm grateful to be there.

"Trying to find the time to bond with this car on single lap is something I'm finding very difficult at the moment but we don't give up and there's always a way. We keep pushing and trying and we've got amazing support so just keep working hard.

"Ultimately I'm lacking a lot of pace, it's just me not gelling with the car at the moment.

"I was feeling positive after the last race, and hoping that I could apply some of those things but it's not worked. I'll go back to the drawing board and keep working.”

The race went no better, and despite some positives with his valiant effort of defence against Lando Norris, Hamilton was unable to keep up with the pace of the front pack. Ultimately it was a lonely race for the Briton who crossed the line in seventh.

Celebrations emerged from the other side of the garage, as Leclerc secured the first Grand Prix podium of the season for Ferrari. No parties were on Hamilton’s side as he came home over 30 seconds behind — a shocking deficit which brought in a bleak response from Hamilton who seemingly isn’t hopeful for the remainder of the season.

"Nothing positive to take from today," Hamilton said, "apart from Charles [Leclerc] on the podium, which is great for the team.

"It was horrible, not enjoyable at all. I was just sliding around. It's pretty bad. I don't know how much longer I'll struggle for but it's definitely painful. Just going to try and improve from week to week.

"At the moment there is no fix so this is how it's going to be for the rest or the year. It's going to be painful. In Qualifying it's me extracting performance and in the race I tried everything and the car just didn't want to go any quicker."

During post-race analysis, Sky Sport veteran pundit and former F1 driver Martin Brundle described the interview as “hard to watch.”

A Psychological and Physical Lack of Confidence

The thought of Hamilton ending his career at the prestigious Scuderia was a visionary culmination to a magnificent career.

However, what has materialised in the opening five rounds seems to be unfolding as a chimeric dream: exciting but seemingly out of reach.

The difficulties faced by Hamilton aren’t all rooted in a physical lack of performance in the SF-25. A more complex battle is possibly at play psychologically, with public pressure, a growing deficit to Leclerc and a deepening sense of disorientation all chipping away at Hamilton.

For now, ahead of the sixth round in Miami, Hamilton will have to focus on driving on par with Leclerc and squeezing out as much performance as possible from the car.

Yet in the bigger picture, the omnipresent question still looms over Hamilton. Will the seven-time World Champion be able to succeed at Ferrari and earn the much coveted eighth? Or will his troubles define his stint with Ferrari? Only time will tell.