David Coulthard has said that, while nothing detracts from his records and talent, Lewis Hamilton has been “out of sorts” in the current era of Formula 1, which will be a “pretty worrying” sign as he heads to Ferrari.

Hamilton spoke candidly about his Sprint qualifying performance at the penultimate race of 2024, the Qatar Grand Prix, claiming “I’m definitely not fast anymore” after being unsure why he was behind team-mate George Russell.

‘Clock is ticking’ for Lewis Hamilton against ‘Mother Nature’ in Ferrari ‘kickstart’ hope

When presented with Hamilton’s comments from Qatar, Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur pointed to his performance at the Las Vegas Grand Prix at the previous round as proof that he is “not worried at all” about the Briton’s credentials for 2025.

Hamilton has now taken in his first laps as a Ferrari driver after his long-anticipated move from Mercedes, but after his 19-5 head-to-head defeat in qualifying against Russell last season, Coulthard said that is a “pretty worrying” sign.

The former McLaren and Red Bull driver added that there is a chance Ferrari may be the “kickstart” he needs to get back to form.

“Lewis is a winning machine, he’s broken all the records, but this isn’t a personality contest, it’s not an opinion contest – it’s a data-driven contest,” Coulthard explained on Channel 4.

“And to be out-qualified consistently by George [Russell]…the greats don’t have bad cars.

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“He’s got out of sorts with this current phase of his age and formula, and whether Ferrari are the kickstart to bring him back or not remains to be seen, but I’d say that’s pretty worrying.

“Doesn’t detract from his brilliance, doesn’t take away anything from the records, but there is a thing called Mother Nature, and the clock is ticking.”

He went on to have a difficult race at Lusail, losing places after jutting forward at the start before moving properly, then receiving a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane, which dropped him out of the points.

Coulthard explained the seven-time World Champion was “in a bad place” mentally that weekend, and was “done” with the 2024 season.

“The jump start, it can happen,” he said of Hamilton’s outing in Qatar. “Not putting the pit limiter on, which, if that’s what he actually did, I think that’s more worrying for me, because it’s just something you naturally do when you go in the pit lane.

“He was already mentally in a bad place, reaching to out his engineer confused with how slow he was and generally not in a happy place at all.

“Let’s hope he’s not done for good, but he’s just done with this year, this car.”

Hamilton’s next outing in a Ferrari is set to take place alongside Charles Leclerc, in three days of running at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in their 2023 car, the SF-23.

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