Lewis Hamilton told he’s already suffering from the same issue as Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari after just four races

Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel share some similarities when it comes to their Ferrari careers.

Both drivers arrived at Ferrari with plenty of drivers’ championships already under their belts, but with the hope that they could end the team’s ever-increasing title drought.

Sebastian Vettel had dominated Formula 1 for years with Red Bull, but needed a new challenge after the emerging Daniel Ricciardo put him under increasing pressure.

The German eventually made way for Max Verstappen, and after six years with the Scuderia, he moved on to see out the rest of his F1 career with Aston Martin.

Lewis Hamilton’s barren spell at the end of his time with Mercedes lasted much longer than Vettel’s one-year gap between winning the 2013 championship and heading to Maranello, but it’s easy to understand why.

Hamilton won six championships with the Silver Arrows, but when the opportunity to join Ferrari arose, he couldn’t turn it down at this stage of his career.

Unfortunately, Hamilton hasn’t had the positive start to life at Ferrari that he would have liked.

Former Ferrari technical manager Luigi Mazzola has shared his theory as to why the 40-year-old isn’t quite on the same level as teammate Charles Leclerc this season.

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Lewis Hamilton suffering from the same problem as Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari

Mazzola was speaking on Sky Italia’s Race Anatomy program after the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Leclerc and Hamilton finished P4 and P5, respectively, but the team’s wait to secure a Grand Prix podium continues.

Mazzola explained: “The real problem with Ferrari is obviously the car, which is really difficult to drive.

“However, I praise the performance of Leclerc, who, at the moment, I see a bit like Verstappen at Red Bull.

“That is, only he can drive a difficult car. I praise his qualities, unfortunately, he never has a decent car to show them off.

“I see Hamilton a bit like Vettel in 2019: that year too, the car wasn’t easy and Leclerc managed it better.

“It depends on driving styles and making the car fit accordingly. Maybe with some developments it will become easier to drive.”

Mazzola was then asked specifically about Ferrari’s performance in Bahrain and continued: “The strategy? In my opinion, there weren’t many clear ideas.

“Starting with the yellow tyres would have made sense to make a stop, which fortunately didn’t happen, because the white [hard] tyres weren’t good tyres.

“Maybe the red [soft] tyres [after the Safety Car] would have been appropriate, it would have been a slightly more courageous choice.

“I have the impression that their initial idea was to do a pit stop, and then they changed their plan during the race.”

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How Sebastian Vettel helped Lewis Hamilton prepare for life at Ferrari

Vettel and Hamilton were bitter rivals at times on track, but that is a long way in the past, especially after the German retired from Formula 1.

In the build-up to joining the team, Hamilton asked for advice from Vettel about his new race engineer, Riccardo Adami.

The pair had worked together in the past, and aside from Hamilton having a few hiccups with Adami, the relationship appears to have started very smoothly.

There are bigger questions that Hamilton will know he needs to answer about whether he still has the required speed to regularly challenge for wins and even a championship.

However, it appears unlikely that Ferrari’s 2025 F1 car is the right machine to provide that answer.