Lewis Hamilton described his current difficulties with Ferrari as “horrible” following the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and anticipates these struggles will persist painfully through the remainder of the 2025 F1 season.
Starting and finishing in a solitary seventh position in Sunday`s race, Hamilton was clearly outperformed by his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc once again.
Since his win in the Chinese GP Sprint last month, Hamilton has consistently finished behind Leclerc in both qualifying and the race across the subsequent three rounds in Japan, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia.
In Jeddah, he finished more than 30 seconds adrift of Leclerc, who secured Ferrari`s first podium finish of the season.
Hamilton commented, “There`s nothing positive to take [from my race], except for Charles finishing on the podium, which is great for the team.”
He described the race experience: “It was horrible, not enjoyable at all. I was just sliding around, I didn`t have grip. In the first stint, there was massive understeer, the car wouldn`t turn, and then massive degradation. The second stint had slightly better balance, but still no pace. Pretty bad.”
When questioned about his dip in form since China, Hamilton stated he “doesn`t have any answers” and appeared confused while speaking to reporters.
He added, “At the moment, there`s no fix. So, this is how it`s going to be for the rest of the year. It`s going to be painful.”
Hamilton Discusses Data Comparison with Leclerc
Both Hamilton and Leclerc have mentioned having similar driving styles and adopting convergent car setups for the recent Saudi Arabian F1 race.
While Leclerc is considered one of the grid`s top qualifiers, Hamilton, historically strong in race pace, has also been unable to match his teammate`s performance during races.
Hamilton acknowledged, “He [Leclerc] has been driving this car for a long time, so he definitely knows it really well.”
“There`s plenty in the data, for sure,” Hamilton noted. “Honestly, it doesn`t look massively different in the data. I just go slower through the corners.”
“We do have slightly different set-ups,” he continued. “I have to look and see whether that set-up is the way the car likes to be. He and his side are definitely obviously doing a better job.”
He concluded, “In qualifying, it`s me extracting performance. In the race, I tried everything, and the car just didn`t want to go quicker.”
