Lewis Hamilton has worryingly claimed that his qualifying this year with Ferrari is “worse” than it was in his final campaign with Mercedes.

Hamilton announced last year that he’d join Ferrari for the F1 2025 championship, the Briton saying goodbye to Mercedes after 12 years and six World titles together.

Lewis Hamilton: Worse qualifying this year than I had last year

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

But his move to Ferrari has not heralded the rejuvenation that many pundits predicted; there are instead similarities to his final season with Mercedes – most notably in qualifying.

Last year, Hamilton lost the Mercedes qualifying head-to-head to George Russell, going down 19-5 in only his second qualifying loss in 18 years on the grid.

So far this year, he trails Charles Leclerc 3-1 in Grand Prix qualifying, having crossed the line six-tenths slower than the Monegasque driver in Bahrain.

F1 2025 head-to-head stats

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

Speaking to the media, including PlanetF1.com, after the session, he said: “I’m just not doing a good enough job on my side so I’ve just got to keep improving. It’s definitely not a good feeling, for sure.”

Quizzed on what he could do to improve his pace, he replied: “I really don’t know. I don’t have a lot of answers for you guys, I just wasn’t quick.”

His comments harked back to last year’s “I’m definitely not fast anymore”, the blunt claim he made after qualifying at the Qatar Grand Prix.

But while this year’s ninth place on the Bahrain grid matched his performance at the Sakhir circuit with Mercedes last year, Hamilton says it feels a lot worse.

“Much different car, but, yeah, still worse qualifying this year than I had last year,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com.

“Just keep trying, we’ll get there. Get there eventually.”

Hamilton made up four places in the Grand Prix as he raced to fifth place. It was, however, yet another Grand Prix without a podium result for the Chinese GP Sprint winner.

But despite his troubles, he says he’d much rather be out on track than back at Maranello after a pre-season swamped with photoshoots and PR commitments.

“It’s been really nice to be at these races, to be honest,” he said. “Less photoshoots and all that kind of stuff.

“First up, the year was brutal, photoshoots and more things I’ve ever had before so it’s been nice to be into this long trip and get back to what I love doing most.”

Such was Hamilton’s misery after qualifying in Bahrain, former F1 driver Karun Chandhok said it sounded like he was back at Mercedes.

“I heard his comments today and he sounded completely like he was on the floor,” the former F1 driver told Sky F1.

“If I closed my eyes, it was like watching him wear the Mercedes uniform last year.

“Didn’t it just sound like him last year? How many times last year did we hear him say, ‘I can’t qualify.’

“I just closed my eyes and thought, ‘Is he in a Mercedes race-suit again?’ It just felt like last year again. I don’t know what’s happened.”

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