Lewis Hamilton Struggles Once more as Ferrari’s 2025 Automotive Reveals a Acquainted Flaw
Lewis Hamilton endured one other tough outing on the Japanese Grand Prix, failing to depart a mark in his underperforming Ferrari. Ranging from a disappointing eighth on the grid, the seven-time world champion made minimal progress, gaining only one place by the top of the race.
Early on, Hamilton simply overtook Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar, as anticipated. However when it got here to chasing down rookie Kimi Antonelli—his personal successor at Mercedes—he couldn’t apply any actual strain. The 18-year-old Italian completed greater than 10 seconds forward of the veteran Briton, marking a symbolic second in F1’s generational shift. Much more regarding, Hamilton trailed teammate Charles Leclerc by a staggering 13 seconds on the flag.
Because the preliminary increase of successful his first Dash race as a Ferrari driver, Lewis Hamilton has persistently been overshadowed by Charles Leclerc. In Suzuka, the Monegasque outqualified him by 4 grid spots and held agency within the race, whereas his teammate struggled to match the tempo all through the Japanese weekend.
In consequence, the Briton stays behind Williams’ Alex Albon within the drivers’ standings heading into the Bahrain Grand Prix. Whereas his disqualification from the Shanghai spherical definitely affected his factors tally, he’s nonetheless solely averaging 5 factors per weekend—properly under expectations for a Ferrari contender.
Ferrari’s SF-25 Suffers from Identical Slim Working Window That Troubled Hamilton final yr
The story of Ferrari’s 2025 F1 marketing campaign up to now has been one in all inconsistency. Whereas Lewis Hamilton and the SF-25 regarded sturdy throughout the Dash classes in Shanghai, the staff has extra typically been the fourth-fastest outfit on the grid. The query many are asking is: why is efficiency so risky?
Based on German publication Bild, the Ferrari isn’t inherently sluggish. Nevertheless, its effectiveness is proscribed by a particularly slender working window—identical to the Mercedes W15 that Hamilton drove in 2024. Elements like setup, monitor temperature, and floor situations should align completely for the SF-25 to shine. In any other case, the automobile drops out of the efficiency window and turns into tough to deal with.
This attribute has proved particularly difficult for Hamilton, who struggled with a equally “peaky” Mercedes final season. As he advised Autosport in 2024, the W15 required exact situations to work optimally. That sample is repeating itself at Ferrari.
To place issues in perspective, Lewis Hamilton’s common qualifying place final season was 8.5. However on sure weekends—akin to Spain, Silverstone, and Spa—he was in a position to qualify inside the highest three, highlighting how delicate the automobile was to exterior elements.
Unstable Rear-Finish a Key Subject Hamilton Is Struggling to Handle at Ferrari
Additional complicating issues for Hamilton is the SF-25’s unpredictable rear, a attribute that Leclerc has seemingly tailored to extra efficiently. Reviews from the Italian web site AutoRacer point out that the rear-end instability has change into a constant problem for the staff, affecting each race tempo and tyre degradation.
Sky Germany analyst Ralf Schumacher famous forward of the season that Hamilton has traditionally struggled with vehicles that exhibit a unfastened rear. Based on Schumacher, such instability erodes Hamilton’s confidence within the automobile—one thing essential for extracting efficiency. That sentiment was echoed by 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve throughout the Japanese GP broadcast, the place he commented on how visibly unstable Hamilton’s Ferrari appeared, continuously sliding by way of corners.
This rear-end instability not solely impacts stability but additionally will increase tyre temperatures, resulting in accelerated thermal degradation—a vicious cycle that hampers each qualifying and race efficiency.
To make issues worse, the Maranello staff was compelled to lift the journey peak of the SF-25 in Suzuka because of extreme skid-block put on, a direct consequence of Hamilton’s disqualification from the Chinese language Grand Prix. Identified for preferring ultra-low journey heights to maximise efficiency, Hamilton is probably going annoyed by the enforced compromise, which additional limits the automobile’s potential.
As Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton seek for options, the parallels together with his closing season at Mercedes have gotten more and more arduous to disregard. Except the staff finds a solution to widen the SF-25’s efficiency window and stabilize its rear-end conduct, Lewis Hamilton’s hopes of a aggressive 2025 marketing campaign could proceed to slide away.
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