David Coulthard believes Lewis Hamilton has lost one of his F1 ‘superpowers’ this season, ‘his problem right now…’

Ferrari fans have been extremely excited about the prospect of signing Lewis Hamilton as soon as the news broke last February.

A year of waiting led to thousands of Ferrari fans descending on Fiorano to see Lewis Hamilton’s first outing in one of the team’s Formula 1 cars.

Every testing run and each lap during pre-season were thoroughly analysed before he finally made his debut at the Australian Grand Prix.

Unfortunately, Hamilton wasn’t able to deliver the dream start to his Ferrari career, and a strategy error cost him and teammate Charles Leclerc plenty of points.

The 40-year-old then showed a glimpse of why he’s a seven-time world champion and has won 105 Grand Prix in his F1 career by winning the Sprint Race from pole position in China.

Since then, Hamilton and Ferrari haven’t lived up to the high expectations placed on them both from within the team and the Tifosi.

Hamilton is still adapting to life at Ferrari after leaving Mercedes, but questions will be asked about whether the small deficit he has to Leclerc right now is due to his lack of experience racing for his new team or if he’s already racing at maximum capacity.

READ MORE: Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton’s life outside F1 from net worth to family

David Coulthard wonders if Lewis Hamilton has lost his qualifying superpower this season

Reflecting on the Bahrain Grand Prix for Channel 4, former F1 driver David Coulthard was analysing Hamilton’s performance.

The seven-time world champion made up four positions during Sunday’s race, but started from P9 after setting a time more than half a second off his teammate in Q3.

It was put to Coulthard that after the race on Sunday, Hamilton was much more positive, while Leclerc sounded far more downbeat.

Coulthard replied: “Yeah, it’s interesting. Charles is very questioning of strategy from in the cockpit.

“He wanted to go on what I think was a one-stop strategy, or maybe it was actually contrary tyres, they won’t give us that information, of course.

“I think the fact that Lewis is quite buoyant is because he went forward in the race. He raced well, that’s never been in doubt.

The Bahrain Grand Prix is looking exciting! 🤩

Grid positions for the boys below 👇 pic.twitter.com/ikHSGj2SA2

— Scuderia Ferrari HP (@ScuderiaFerrari) April 13, 2025

“What is his problem right now, and he can explain as he eloquently does and as to all the issues that are not making the car talk to him, but he’s got to qualify better to state the obvious.

“It seems so difficult to say about a seven-time world champion, because that was one of his superpowers in the past.”

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How Lewis Hamilton’s qualifying performances compare to Charles Leclerc this season

Hamilton not performing at his highest level in qualifying isn’t unique to his first campaign with Ferrari.

Mercedes witnessed Hamilton’s qualifying drop-off last year, with his previous teammate George Russell regularly outperforming him on Saturdays.

It was wondered whether or not that was down to the characteristics of the car, and it has to be expected that Hamilton’s qualifying form will improve as the season goes on, as he further adapts to the SF-25.

However, Hamilton has so far recorded an average qualifying position of 6.2 this season.

Leclerc’s, for context, is 4.6, and that also takes into account Hamilton’s Sprint Race pole position in China.

Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli is next on the list, with an average starting position of 8.4, and the 18-year-old Italian didn’t get out of Q1 on his Formula 1 debut.

After qualifying in Japan, Hamilton admitted he was ‘not where I want to be’ after securing eighth on the grid.

He needs a strong performance on Saturday in Saudi Arabia to give him the confidence that he can produce over one lap when the pressure is on.