David Coulthard believes one of Lewis Hamilton’s biggest strengths has now turned into a weakness this season

Lewis Hamilton would have been well aware that his first performances as a Ferrari driver were going to be heavily scrutinised.

He would have been encouraged by how Ferrari finished the 2024 F1 season, narrowly missing out on the constructors’ championship to McLaren.

Based on his previous standing in Formula 1, swapping Lewis Hamilton in for Carlos Sainz, despite 2024 being the strongest campaign of the Spaniard’s career, should have given Ferrari the additional boost they needed to go one better this year.

Unfortunately, after five race weekends, that’s not proved to be the case.

Ferrari have made some key technical changes to their car that don’t appear to benefit Hamilton or his teammate Charles Leclerc.

Leclerc wasn’t happy during pre-season, but the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix proved that he’s beginning to gel with the car.

He finished third and easily held off both Mercedes drivers, while also keeping Lando Norris at bay in the final laps.

Sadly for Hamilton, it was a case of starting seventh and finishing seventh in Jeddah, leading to plenty of self-reflection from the seven-time world champion during the two-week break in the F1 schedule.

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David Coulthard worried for ‘realist’ Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari this season

Hamilton was despondent after the race in Saudi Arabia, finishing more than half a minute behind Leclerc.

There were periods of the race where he looked genuinely quick, but too often he didn’t have enough confidence in the car to push it to its limits on a track where drivers have to be completely committed.

David Coulthard was covering the race on Channel 4 and was asked how Hamilton will feel after the race in Saudi Arabia and he explained: “He’s a realist and that realism has made him one of the most successful drivers in the history of the sport, only equaled by Michael Schumacher when it comes to world championships.

Leaving it all on track 👊 pic.twitter.com/hy9lDA2S8H

— Scuderia Ferrari HP (@ScuderiaFerrari) April 21, 2025

“This continues to be an underperforming Lewis Hamilton.

“Those who can see nothing past him will think, well, who am I to say that?

“I’m saying it based on data, based on facts. He knows he needs more to get in front of Charles.”

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Lewis Hamilton putting in the hours to turn around tough start at Ferrari

The difficulties Hamilton is facing at Ferrari are potentially being slightly overblown.

Due to the nature of the double-header and then three race weekends on the bounce, Hamilton and every other driver who joined a new team are under intense pressure to get up to speed far quicker than racers would in the past.

Ferrari are unable to change the power unit in Hamilton’s car to help him with engine braking, something that he’s commented on being very different to his time at Mercedes.

Hamilton is having trouble with the brakes Ferrari use, and all of these marginal changes quickly add up.

In a season where pole positions are being decided by hundreds of a second, Hamilton is expected to reach Leclerc’s level of confidence exceptionally fast, despite his relative lack of experience in the team’s F1 cars.

Hamilton spent hours in the paddock in Saudi Arabia working with the team to try and resolve his difficulties with the SF-25.

Unfortunately, for some fans, it’ll be hard to look past the deficit he had to George Russell over one lap at Mercedes last season and not directly translate that into the gap between himself and Leclerc this year.