Ferrari have now discovered the same car problem that plagued Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes in 2024

Lewis Hamilton failed to make an impression in his Ferrari at the Japanese Grand Prix. Starting from a lowly eighth, the Briton only gained one position before the chequered flag.

Hamilton dispatched the Racing Bulls car of Isack Hadjar in the early stages – as expected. But he couldn’t put rookie Kimi Antonelli, the man who replaced him at Mercedes, under any meaningful pressure.

In the end, Antonelli finished more than 10 seconds ahead of the seven-time world champion. More significantly, he was 13 seconds adrift of his teammate Charles Leclerc.

Hamilton has been outshone by Leclerc since the high of his first Sprint win as a Ferrari driver. The Monegasque outqualified him by four places and held onto his position during the race.

The result is that Hamilton remains below Williams driver Alex Albon in the championship ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix. While his disqualification in China has contributed, he’s only averaging five points per weekend so far.

Ferrari’s 2025 F1 car has a small working window – just like last year’s Mercedes

Ferrari and Hamilton looked like the class of the field in the Sprint sessions in Shanghai, but otherwise, they’ve often seemed to be the fourth-fastest team. How can the performance swing so significantly?

According to Bild, ‘the Ferrari is not a bad car’, but ‘the working window is too small’. That means the car is only a contender within narrow parameters – be it set-up, temperature or track conditions.

Hamilton ‘doesn’t like that at all’, having been plagued by a similar issue at Mercedes in 2024. Speaking to Autosport last summer, he described the W15 as ‘peaky’.

To demonstrate that point, Hamilton’s average qualifying position last year was 8.5, but he jumped into the top three in Spain, Great Britain and Belgium.

Lewis Hamilton can’t ‘cope’ with one issue Ferrari are facing this year

In addition to Bild’s report, AutoRacer add that Ferrari are dealing with an ‘unpredictable rear’ on the SF-25. Leclerc has been able to adapt his driving style to cope.

But speaking before the season started, Sky Germany pundit Ralf Schumacher said Hamilton ‘can’t cope’ with a loose back end. It chronically undermines his confidence in the car.

Sure enough, Jacques Villeneuve said during the coverage of the Japanese GP that Hamilton’s Ferrari ‘slides a fair amount’. That also has the effect of heating up the tyres, so it can be self-perpetuating.

Ferrari had to raise their ride height for Japan after excessive skid-block wear saw Hamilton thrown out of the Chinese GP. Hamilton has long pushed for his teams to run the car as low as possible, so this will also be a source of frustration.