Karun Chandhok highlights Lewis Hamilton’s biggest problem at Ferrari after looking at his data

Lewis Hamilton will be spending the days between the Saudi Arabian GP and the upcoming race in Miami analysing his tough first five races with Ferrari.

The seven-time world champion has struggled to adapt to his new team, citing the particularities of the SF-25 compared to what he had at Mercedes.

Ferrari has a theory for why Hamilton is struggling more than Charles Leclerc, while Alex Brundle believes the main issue for the Briton is with the brakes and high-speed corners.

The team has spent the last couple of races holding back performance, after their double disqualification in China prompted concerns over their car setup. Both Leclerc and Hamilton were thrown out for separate technical infringements involving an underweight car and plank wear.

Ferrari has held back some performance to find a fix, but it does not explain one trend that Karun Chandhok has noticed with Hamilton in the last few races when speaking on the Sky Sports F1 podcast.

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Karun Chandhok spots worrying Lewis Hamilton trend at Ferrari

Martin Brundle has said it has been ‘hard to watch’ Hamilton amid his struggles, now that it has become a trend in recent races.

Chandhok believes Leclerc has been slowly edging away from Hamilton as the season has progressed, which is why the seven-time world champion has looked ‘deflated’ at recent races.

“The trend is the worry for me. In Australia, Lewis was 0.16 off Charles, then in Japan it became three tenths, in Bahrain it became 0.59, Saudi it became over six tenths. The trend is going the wrong way, for a driver who we’re hoping is getting more and more accustomed to life at Ferrari, that gap should’ve been closing down. But it’s going the wrong way,” said Chandhok.

“In Saudi, he just looked so deflated. At least in Bahrain, the race pace wasn’t so bad, but it was not that far away. The problem in Saudi Arabia is that it was 31 seconds across 50 laps, which is six-tenths per lap, so I think that’s why he looked dejected.

“Now the trend has gone where he is losing just a little bit everywhere and that, as a driver psychologically, it’s like ‘Where do I begin?’ If it’s just one type of corner, it’s easy, but he’s now got to look at the whole spectrum of corners, and that is where psychologically he’s looking deflated.”

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Rumours in Italian media suggest Hamilton is struggling predominantly with the engine braking in the Ferrari, as it is very different to what he had at Mercedes.

This is effectively the off-throttle system that kicks in and plays a big role in the regeneration of the battery energy, with Hamilton struggling with the ‘power spikes’ that are often delivered.

This generates understeer from the unexpected torque of the engine, making him struggle more over the course of a lap than Leclerc.

Hamilton could not make his tyres last as long as Leclerc in the race in Saudi Arabia, which was key to the Monogasque earning Ferrari’s first podium in a Grand Prix in 2025.

It suggests that Hamilton will need to adapt his driving style if he wants to get close to Leclerc’s lap times and potentially finish more regularly on the podium this year.