Lewis Hamilton Struggles Once more as Ferrari’s 2025 Automotive Reveals a Acquainted Flaw
Lewis Hamilton endured one other troublesome outing on the Japanese Grand Prix, failing to go away 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.
For the reason that preliminary increase of profitable his first Dash race as a Ferrari driver, Lewis Hamilton has constantly 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.
Consequently, the Briton stays behind Williams’ Alex Albon within the drivers’ standings heading into the Bahrain Grand Prix. Whereas his disqualification from the Shanghai spherical actually affected his factors tally, he’s nonetheless solely averaging 5 factors per weekend—effectively beneath expectations for a Ferrari contender.
Ferrari’s SF-25 Suffers from Similar Slim Working Window That Troubled Hamilton final 12 months
The story of Ferrari’s 2025 F1 marketing campaign thus far has been one in all inconsistency. Whereas Lewis Hamilton and the SF-25 seemed sturdy in the course of the Dash classes in Shanghai, the crew has extra usually been the fourth-fastest outfit on the grid. The query many are asking is: why is efficiency so risky?
In keeping with German publication Bild, the Ferrari isn’t inherently gradual. Nonetheless, its effectiveness is proscribed by a particularly slim working window—similar to the Mercedes W15 that Hamilton drove in 2024. Components like setup, monitor temperature, and floor circumstances should align completely for the SF-25 to shine. In any other case, the automobile drops out of the efficiency window and turns into troublesome 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 circumstances 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—reminiscent of Spain, Silverstone, and Spa—he was capable of qualify inside the highest three, highlighting how delicate the automobile was to exterior elements.
Unstable Rear-Finish a Key Challenge 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. Studies from the Italian web site AutoRacer point out that the rear-end instability has turn into a constant problem for the crew, 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. In keeping with 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 in the course of 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 steadiness but in addition 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 crew was compelled to boost the experience 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 experience heights to maximise efficiency, Hamilton is probably going pissed off by the enforced compromise, which additional limits the automobile’s potential.
As Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton seek for options, the parallels along with his ultimate season at Mercedes have gotten more and more arduous to disregard. Except the crew finds a technique to widen the SF-25’s efficiency window and stabilize its rear-end habits, Lewis Hamilton’s hopes of a aggressive 2025 marketing campaign could proceed to slide away.
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