Ferrari have exposed Lewis Hamilton to his worst nightmare by failing to fix ‘key issue’ with their car

Lewis Hamilton is hoping for a repeat of F1’s last Sprint weekend at the Miami Grand Prix. He desperately needs a dose of optimism at Ferrari.

In just his second appearance for the Scuderia, Hamilton took a surprise pole for the Shanghai Sprint. He would then convert it with a vintage drive, stretching out a lead of just under seven seconds in 19 laps.

While not a victory that will count towards Hamilton’s records, it seemed to symbolically launch his Ferrari career. But just over a month later, it’s looking like an outlier.

Hamilton’s eight-point haul in that event still accounts for more than a quarter of his overall tally. His results since read P7, P5, P7.

With less fuel on board for the shorter-distance race, Ferrari may be able to run their car lower to the ground in Miami. That appeared to unlock more performance in China but came at the cost of a disqualification for excessive plank wear in the race.

Ferrari can solve that issue this time by raising the SF-25 when parc ferme re-opens before qualifying. That offers Hamilton some hope as he heads to Florida, but a true judgement of his performance will be made on Sunday.

Ferrari’s ‘intrinsic’ qualifying weakness is Lewis Hamilton’s worst nightmare

According to a report from AutoRacer, Ferrari saw their qualifying performance as a ‘key issue’ in 2024. They finished just 14 points shy of winning the constructors’, but they only scored four pole positions – half what McLaren and Red Bull managed.

Fred Vasseur wanted to build a car that was more consistent on a Saturday, but it’s clear after five races that ‘this aim has not been met’. Ferrari still ‘suffer’ when they’re trying to extract ‘peak performance’ on brand-new soft tyres.

They’re around four-tenths adrift of pacesetters McLaren over a single lap, and a tenth back from Red Bull and Mercedes. The table below shows the average qualifying position of each team’s lead driver, with even Charles Leclerc, who’s been much more comfortable than Hamilton, clearly lagging behind.

Ferrari’s ‘intrinsic’ weakness on low fuel is particularly impactful given that following and overtaking is harder than ever in the races. It’s also a nightmare scenario for Hamilton, who individually struggles on a Saturday at this stage of his career.

Since the start of last season, the seven-time world champion is 23-6 down to his teammates in Grand Prix qualifying. He needed a competitive Ferrari to disguise this weakness, but as it turns out, the 2025 challenger has exacerbated it.

Lewis Hamilton wants Ferrari to go against Charles Leclerc’s feedback – can they afford to?

The early data shows that Carlos Sainz was 10 times better than Hamilton in qualifying. The Spaniard was 0.03% behind Leclerc on average last year, while his replacement is 0.3% away.

A final verdict should be withheld until the end of the season. But the 40-year-old sounded anything but hopeful before he left Saudi Arabia.

Without the post-race adrenaline levels, Hamilton delighted his fans by vowing not to give up at a recent sponsor event. His work ethic certainly can’t be called into question.

Intriguingly, Hamilton is asking for the opposite wing adjustments to Leclerc in races. This puts the team in a difficult position – the Monegasque has found a stronger set-up, but their new signing clearly feels the need to go in a different direction.