Lewis Hamilton endured a challenging Friday in Barcelona at the wheel of the Ferrari SF-25.

Ending the day outside of the top 10, Hamilton at one stage came over Ferrari team radio to deliver an alarming verdict on the SF-25, claiming it was “not driveable”, as McLaren comfortably set the pace on the day.

Lewis Hamilton laments ‘not driveable’ Ferrari

At first glance, the opening session of the weekend was a positive one for Hamilton as he ended FP1 in third, just under four tenths off the pace, as the new FIA Technical Directive to combat front wing flexing came into force.

However, Hamilton was already making his dissatisfaction with the Ferrari clear over team radio.

“That was bad,” Hamilton debriefed to race engineer Ricciardo Adami. “Is anyone else struggling?”

Adami replied: “Yeah, everybody saw high deg, just that they were down in grip with the soft compound. Tsunoda, for reference, was lapping 21s.”

Hamilton: “Anyone else on hards?”

Adami: “Bearman, Gasly. And Tsunoda did just four laps.”

Hamilton’s situation deteriorated further in FP2 as he managed P11 only, almost eight tenths off the pace as Oscar Piastri took over from McLaren team-mate Lando Norris as the session topper.

And towards the end of the session, Hamilton returned to the radio with another alarming comment.

“That car is not drivable, mate,” he told Adami.

F1 2025 head-to-head standings

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

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

Hamilton meanwhile was the subject of a sarcastic radio message from former team-mate at McLaren Fernando Alonso, which saw Alonso sarcastically bestow the “hero of the day” title upon Hamilton.

Early in the FP2 session, Hamilton was enjoying a tow down into Turn 1 from Alonso’s Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll, with Alonso closely following Hamilton’s Ferrari.

Alonso did not take kindly to that situation.

“We have the hero of the day in front of us,” said Alonso on the radio.

Andrew Vizard, Alonso’s race engineer, replied: “Yeah. That was clever, wasn’t it? That’s good.”

At that point, Alonso hinted at payback to come for Hamilton.

“Yeah. The good thing is that the weekend is very long. Even the championship is very long.”

Hamilton goes into the Spanish Grand Prix sat P6 in the Drivers’ Championship, one position and 16 points behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.

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