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Lewis Hamilton was never comfortable at any point over the weekend in Jeddah - Getty Images/Giuseppe Cacace
Lewis Hamilton left Bahrain in a positive mood, optimistic about finding a way to unlock pace in his Ferrari. Yet in Jeddah a week later that was ripped to shreds. The seven-time world champion admitted that the outlook may not change for the remainder of what he thinks will be a “painful” year.
It appears that not much has changed since three difficult years at Mercedes, where he never fully got to grips with these ground-effect cars. Despite going into a team in a better position, we are seeing the same problems. Five races is a decent amount of time to adapt but history appears to be repeating itself.
What is going on then? The current Formula One cars are difficult to get into a sweet spot when it comes to performance. McLaren aside, we have seen that with most of the front-running teams. One weekend they will be challenging for victory and the next they are nowhere.
Hamilton looks lost
Take Max Verstappen’s results for Red Bull in this triple-header: he won from pole at Suzuka, was a distant sixth in Bahrain and finished second in Saudi Arabia. Ferrari’s up and down performances – and Hamilton’s reaction to them – are a result of the SF-25 being more volatile than its rivals. Hamilton took pole and won the sprint race in China on merit. Yet since then he has been out-qualified – by 0.311sec, 0.597sec and 0.432sec — and out-raced by Charles Leclerc in every session. Leclerc appears to be making progress, but Hamilton does not.
The volatility of the SF-25 does not explain it all, though. After all, Leclerc put in Ferrari’s best grand prix showing of the year to claim the team’s first podium of 2025 and finish just eight seconds behind winner Oscar Piastri. Hamilton was a distant seventh. The problem more fundamentally comes down to Hamilton being lost.
Comparing the 40-year-old’s former team with his new one is a useful reference for explaining some of his woes. Throughout Mercedes’ struggles from 2022-2024 I always said that they should attempt to get the best from what they have, rather than trying to find a magic bullet to get them back to winning races again in one go. The former is exactly what George Russell and Kimi Antonelli appear to be doing this season. Russell is the only driver to have finished every race in the top five and the Mercedes this year appears more predictable and stable, even if it is not a race-winner yet.
I actually believe this turnaround may be because Hamilton is no longer at the team. Mercedes clearly couldn’t not listen to Hamilton’s feedback in those difficult seasons because of the years of experience and success he had with the team. Whether behind the scenes or openly, they had to treat him as the No 1 driver and take his input seriously on how to make the car better. The more inexperienced Russell was likely left hanging off the back of that a little.
We often heard Hamilton saying he was experimenting with the set-up compared with Russell just doing the best with what he had underneath him. I think Mercedes will be thriving as a team and as a group of engineers by not having Hamilton there. From day one with the ground-effect cars he was in a battle. Whether that was because of his own driving style or the car’s characteristics, it was a struggle he never really escaped from. Their approach this year is different and appears to be working with Russell and rookie Antonelli. Mercedes now have a new avenue of development from the input of younger, less experienced and successful drivers.
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With George Russell now at the helm, Mercedes looked to have improved after Hamilton’s departure - Getty Images/Rudy Carezzevoli
Some of the gap in between Leclerc and Hamilton in Saudi Arabia will come down to confidence in the car. It is a high-speed, flowing circuit where commitment is crucial. If you have a car that fails to behave as your instincts tell you then you are starting on the back foot, especially over one flying lap. Hamilton just does not have the confidence in the car to push it to the limit and make it work for him. That is something he perhaps needs to build up to. You cannot take a car you do not trust by the scruff of the neck and go quickly – it will just lead to more errors and damage your confidence further.
Echoes of Rosberg
Is there something in Hamilton’s driving style that means he cannot click with these ground-effect cars? Perhaps. The modern machines are so sensitive to so many different things. The downforce level changes drastically with speed or something like a small tweak on the ride height. It’s all very subtle stuff.
In the previous era of cars one thing I noticed with Hamilton’s driving was that he was at one with the car, especially compared with his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg. Rosberg seemed to be making so many minor adjustments, in effect fixing the problems with his steering inputs. Hamilton, on the other hand, would give the car indications on where he wanted it to go and then allow the car to do the rest with subtle steering inputs, knowing it would not do anything vicious. Hamilton now appears to be driving more like his old rival of 2014 in that regard.
All that considered, the most successful driver in F1 history should not be struggling to this degree. Right now he is fighting just to qualify in the top 10. It is not a motivating situation for a seven-time champion to be in.
Look at how the current crop of rookies are adapting to a new car after coming from Formula Two. The difference from F2 to F1 is huge yet Antonelli, Oliver Bearman and Isack Hadjar have all impressed. There is no way that a driver of Hamilton’s stature, experience and knowledge should still be coming to terms with driving the Ferrari, let alone these ground-effect cars, as he is now.
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