Hamilton ’s settling down at Ferrari is not going according to plan in the Saudi Arabian GP. In fact, the seven times World Champion continue to struggle with pinpointing the best driving conditions, thus is not able to perform on the level he would like to.
A tough settling down
Hamilton did not put his Ferrari challenger too much down the grid for the Saudi Arabian GP, as he will start from P7, comfortably advancing in every segment. However, the Brit is not pleased with the final outcome of his day, as he told selected medias after the end of Qualifying:
“I don’t look at it like that, no. I mean, it wasn’t good in practise, but I’m grateful to have put it through to Q3. Ultimately, lacking a lot of this. “
The former Mercedes driver denied having underlying technical issues on his car, admitting it’s a lack of feeling his problem so far. “No, just me. Just not gelling with the car at the moment.” He understandably said, considering it’s only his fifth race weekend with the Italian Scuderia.
There is still time to find the right solution
After a less successful Friday, Hamilton had opted for some small set up tweaks. Unfortunately, they haven’t had the outcome expected by the driver, who was thus left discouraged.
“I was feeling positive, obviously, after the last race, and hoping that I could apply some of those things, but it’s not worked. So I’m going back to the drawing board and keep working.”
Hamilton also confirmed that he has not received another update from Ferrari following the previous great floor redesign debuted in Bahrain, apart from a different, track-specific aerodynamical wing layout.
“No, we don’t have an upgrade this weekend. They modified the wing, but it’s not an upgrade. We had some stalling.”
Fast at the front
Championship leaders McLaren have consistently been at the top of the field for the entirety of the 2025 F1 season so far. His former team left Hamilton impressed, especially considering the significance of the upgrade package introduced in the current weekend on an already dominating car.
“Yeah, for sure. To McLaren, obviously, that was 7 tenths to McLaren. They got an upgrade this weekend and they’ve been massively quick through the first sector all weekend. I just tried not to think too much of it and just tried to push and wasn’t able to extract that.”
Regardless of the brilliant pace shown by the papaya team, the Ferrari driver opted to focus on his own performance, which he completely demolished.
“Q3 laps aren’t very good. Q3 laps are pretty poor. It’s like my worst laps at the moment, so I need to work on that.”
What will the future hold?
The Brit tried to remain hopeful for the main event set to take place tomorrow at the Jeddah Corniche circuit, and more so wished to be able to improve his starting position on merit rather than on chaos and drama which are often guaranteed at the Saudi Arabian track.
“I’m going to just try and race and see if I can go forwards. If I can go forwards, that’d be great. If not, then you’ll be hopeful for something to happen to try and capitalise on. I’m just going to try to extract the most from the car and strategy.”
Ultimately, Hamilton ended his day discussing his future plans with Ferrari after the end of the Saudi Arabian GP. In fact, he highlighted the perks of having a slightly longer break after a demanding triple header in order to refocus and work on the data collected over the span of the previous events.
“I hope it does, but we’ll keep working. No matter what I try, I’m a long way off. You don’t give up, you just keep trying.”
