Lewis Hamilton has said that he’s back to the drawing board to figure out how to connect with his Ferrari SF-25 after a tough qualifying in Jeddah.

After a difficult Friday in which Hamilton had said he feared falling further back from his 13th-place finish, the seven-time F1 World Champion landed seventh place on the grid for Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton: I’m lacking a lot of pace

Having made it through Q1 and Q2, and having indicated on Friday that he “normally goes backwards” in qualifying, Hamilton popped in a 1:28.201 to claim seventh place.

With Charles Leclerc making it into fourth, six tenths of a second clear of the British driver, the large advantage that Leclerc has had through qualifying sessions over his teammate remained, and Hamilton was open about the fact he’s continuing to struggle with the car.

“I don’t look at like that, no,” he told media including PlanetF1.com when asked about whether seventh place is damage limitation following his Friday travails.

“It wasn’t good in practice, but I’m grateful to have gotten through to to Q3.”

Having felt he’d made a step forward in Bahrain in figuring out the SF-25, a process that he has highlighted as requiring time as he unlearns techniques from his years driving for Mercedes, Hamilton said he feels he’s having to start the process over again.

“It’s just me – I’m not gelling with the car at the moment,” he said.

“Ultimately, I’m lacking a lot of pace.

“I was feeling positive, obviously, at the last race, and hoping that I could apply some of those things. But it’s not worked. So back to the drawing board and keep working.”

During third practice, while circulating some 1.5 seconds down on the pace set by McLaren’s Lando Norris, Hamilton could be heard replying “jeez” when he was told of being down seven tenths of a second in one sector alone.

“Obviously, that was seven tenths to McLaren, like, massively they got an upgrade this week,” Hamilton said of the moment.

“They’ve been massively quick through the first sector all weekend.

“I just try not think too much of it and just try to push. I wasn’t able to extract that Q3 lap, [they] aren’t very good. Q3 laps are pretty poor, that’s like my worst laps at the moment so I need to work on it.”

With Hamilton starting from seventh on the grid, his wealth of experience could pay dividends at a circuit that usually provides opportunities by way of Safety Cars and incidents.

“I’m gonna just try and race and see if I go forwards. If I can go forwards, that’d be great,” he said.

“If not, then you’ll be hopeful for something to happen to try and capitalise on, but just going to try to extract the most from the car and strategy.

“I hope it does but we’ll keep working. No matter what I try, I’m a long way off. But you don’t give up. You just keep trying.”

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