Ted Kravitz says Lewis Hamilton should ask 12-podium F1 rival for qualifying tips amid Ferrari struggles

Lewis Hamilton’s poor qualifying form from his final year at Mercedes has bled into his first season at Ferrari. Charles Leclerc leads the head-to-head 3-1 before the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The gap can possibly be explained by Hamilton’s continued adaptation to the Ferrari car. But until he can get closer to Leclerc, and beat him at a reasonable rate, talk of an inexorable Saturday decline will persist.

Hamilton commendably outpaced the Monegasque, regarded as one of the best qualifiers on the grid, on just his second weekend in China. He converted a magnificent Sprint pole to victory and then edged Leclerc again in Grand Prix quali as Ferrari locked out the third row.

But at this point, that’s looking like an outlier. Hamilton was two-tenths behind in Australia, three in Japan and an alarming six in Bahrain.

At Mercedes last year, George Russell thrashed the seven-time world champion 19-5. The average gap has actually increased this year (0.3% to 0.25%).

Lewis Hamilton should be inspired by Oscar Piastri’s qualifying turnaround

Speaking on Sky Sports’ F1 Show, analyst Ted Kravitz suggested that Oscar Piastri is an example for Hamilton. Qualifying was a weakness for Piastri last year, but he’s been strong on Saturdays so far in 2025.

Lando Norris was even more dominant against the Australian than Russell was against Hamilton, beating him 21-3. But they’re now tied at 2-2 after the first four races.

Piastri bagged his first-ever pole position in Shanghai and followed it up with another in Bahrain. Clearly, the analysis he’s done with his engineers has paid off.

“Oscar deserves all the credit for doing the work on qualifying pace, which is the practice that he did over the winter,” Kravitz said. “Maybe he could tell Lewis Hamilton whatever practice it was that he did.

“Lewis needs some qualifying practice by his own admission at the moment.”

With his 12th F1 podium, Piastri passed Senna for total points at McLaren. He still needs another 450 to overhaul Hamilton.

David Coulthard makes ‘difficult’ admission about Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari

Hamilton sounded disconsolate over the radio after Bahrain qualifying, where he was only ninth fastest. He offered no clear explanation for his woes, instead simply apologising.

The 40-year-old was more level-headed after the race, confident that he’s starting to understand the SF-25. A judgement should be withheld until the end of the season.

David Coulthard is worried Hamilton is losing his qualifying ‘superpowers’, having claimed the record for most pole positions (now 104). The Channel 4 pundit finds that ‘difficult’ to say.

Reassuringly for his fans, Hamilton won’t pursue radical set-ups like he did at Mercedes. Those experiments ended up undermining his confidence in the car.