Lewis Hamilton will lead the evaluation of Ferrari’s floor upgrade in first practice at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Friday, it has emerged.

Ferrari have suffered a poor start to the F1 2025 season with the team currently a distant fourth in the Constructors’ Championship – already 76 points adrift of leaders McLaren – after the opening three races.

Lewis Hamilton to lead direct Ferrari upgrade comparison

As previously reported by PlanetF1.com, the team are set to introduce their first upgrade of the new season in Bahrain this weekend.

Ferrari’s new floor is expected to be followed by a more significant upgrade package in Miami later this month.

With Hamilton’s team-mate Charles Leclerc sitting out FP1 in Sakhir, the seven-time World Champion is set to lead the team’s evaluation of the upgrade.

Lewis Hamilton vs Charles Leclerc: Ferrari head-to-head scores for F1 2025

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

According to respected Italian publication Corriere della Sera, Ferrari will perform a direct comparison of their different floor specifications across the opening hour of practice in Bahrain.

Hamilton is expected to sample the new floor in FP1 with Leclerc’s substitute and Ferrari junior Dino Beganovic running the old specification.

It is common for teams to perform these so-called back-to-back comparisons following a major update to gain an initial real-life impression of the differences, with both Hamilton and Leclerc already trying the new floor in simulator sessions at Maranello earlier this week.

The report adds that the floor is not the only upgrade for Ferrari, who are also introducing new cooling parts and a different geometry for the diffuser.

The Scuderia are also set to have two different rear wings on standby suited for different load levels.

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Hamilton confirmed at last weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix that Ferrari are running the car’s ride height “higher than we would like” at the start of F1 2025 having been unable to access the SF-25’s full potential on a consistent basis.

As reported by PlanetF1.com, Ferrari were forced to run in a compromised state at the Australian Grand Prix after discovering that the car was running too low after Friday practice in Melbourne.

With excessive skid-block wear carrying the threat of disqualification, the team were forced to give away performance at Albert Park by raising the ride height.

Hamilton responded by converting pole position into sprint victory at the following round in China in what remains the highlight of Ferrari’s season so far.

With significantly less fuel required for the 19-lap mini race, Ferrari’s ride-height weakness appeared to be masked for the duration of the spring in Shanghai.

However, Hamilton was disqualified from the main race the following day for excessive wear to his skid blocks, with Leclerc also excluded from the final classification for being underweight.

It marked the second time in the last 18 months that Hamilton has been disqualified for excessive skid-block wear having suffered the same fate in his penultimate season with Mercedes at the 2023 United States Grand Prix.

A report in the Italian media claimed on Wednesday that Leclerc has told Ferrari that he will go his ‘own way’ with car setup following the Japanese Grand Prix, with the eight-time race winner keen to take the SF-25 in a ‘different’ direction compared to the first three races.

It is said by Italian media that Ferrari have been on Hamilton’s ‘every word’ since his arrival from Mercedes, with Leclerc ‘very clear’ about tailoring the car more towards his own driving style going forward.

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