Watching as Lewis Hamilton fought his SF-25 around the Suzuka circuit, Jacques Villeneuve says the lack of rear-end grip has to be a huge concern for the Scuderia.

And it is a problem that does not bode well for future races.

Are Ferrari a team in trouble?

Qualifying P8 for the Japanese Grand Prix, Hamilton admitted he was “happy to get into Q3” given the closely contested battle for a top ten position on the grid.

One of his biggest struggles on Saturday was because Ferrari had to raise the car’s ride height after his Chinese GP DSQ.

“Yes,” he confirmed to Sky F1, “we are running higher than we would like, but I don’t know if everyone else is in the same boat in that respect.

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“Particularly obviously after the last race, we’re a bit higher than we want to be. It’s usually the knock-on effect from a weekend like we had before.”

That, however, wasn’t the only issue the Briton suffered at the Suzuka circuit with the Sky F1 pundits noting how Hamilton’s Ferrari lacked rear-end grip.

“Looking at the Ferrari, it’s not got the most stable rear end I would have thought,” said David Croft.

Jacques Villeneuve, joining him in commentary in Japan, replied: “I was about to say, the Ferrari slides a fair amount.

“We’re looking at the Ferrari, it’s moving around, sliding around, heating up the tyres. That’s not a good sign for the longer run.

“You could also tell that [George] Russell had a much tighter line. He would back off a bit so that he could have a tighter exit and get on the gas better.”

Hamilton went from eighth to seventh in the Grand Prix, only passing Isack Hadjar, and later confirmed there was an issue with his SF-25.

Although he didn’t go into specific details, he said: “We found something on the car that has been underperforming for the last three races so I am really hoping when that is fixed that I will start getting better results.

“I’m losing just over a tenth a lap with the issue we have. I’m hoping at the next race it’s fixed.”

Whether whatever that part is, and Ferrari have not revealed that either, resolves his rear-end grip issues remains to be seen.

Hamilton is currently eighth in the Drivers’ Championship with just 15 points, 47 down on championship leader Lando Norris.

Meanwhile, Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur believes the Scuderia are making inroads on McLaren’s advantage but concedes it will take time.

“I didn’t spend the winter to have expectations from race one that we would be there or there, but just going to Australia to race and to try to get the best from what we have,” he said.

“We had exactly the same approach last year – we are able to come back after the first couple of races. We were six-tenths off on average, and we were able to come back during the season.

“We need to keep the same approach. The gap doesn’t matter, nor the results of today. We need to try to do a better job next week, to improve the potential and also the extraction of the potential of the car in its operation and potential.

“We have to improve everywhere. At least we took a step forward compared to last Sunday, at least on the operation, and we have to start from there. But it’s not the ideal start of the season, for sure, but it’s still a long one to go.”

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