Lewis Hamilton has not enjoyed the start to life at Ferrari that he would have expected over the winter.
So much hype and anticipation surrounded the seven-time world champion as he prepared for his first season in red. Ferrari had been extensively preparing Hamilton in the off-season to get him integrated into the setup as quickly as possible.
Hamilton is invigorated at his new environment and would have had high optimism going into the 2025 season. However, the first two races have not gone according to plan.
The Australian Grand Prix yielded one point from the Brit after Ferrari were in ‘crisis’ in the wet weather conditions. Hamilton was leading at one stage as the team gambled on dry tyres, hoping the second rain shower would pass quickly, but it did not pay off.
Instead, Ferrari left Melbourne with five points – one fewer than Sauber. Hamilton was also struggling with radio communication with his race engineer Riccardo Adami – it was the first race the pair had worked together and they do not see their friction during the race as a long-term problem.
The 40-year-old bounced back at the Chinese Grand Prix by securing his and Ferrari’s first Sprint win on Saturday. However, on Sunday, Hamilton was disqualified from the race, along with teammate Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly.
Fred Vasseur reveals Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari debut was ‘compromised’ by a technical issue in pre-season testing
Hamilton’s rearward skid block was found to be 0.5mm under the limit after the race, while Leclerc’s SF-25 was underrweight by 1kg. Ferrari’s 18 points scored from finishing P5 and P6 were subsequently taken away.
It means the Maranello outfit sit level on points with Williams in the constructors’ championship, 61 behind leaders McLaren. Ferrari admitted Hamilton’s car must be run lower due to the change to the suspension in 2025, ultimately causing the wear on the skid.
| Position | Constructors’ Standings | Points |
| 1 |
McLaren Racing |
78 |
| 2 |
Mercedes-AMG Petronas |
57 |
| 3 |
Red Bull Racing |
36 |
| 4 |
Williams F1 Team |
17 |
| 5 |
Scuderia Ferrari |
17 |
| 6 |
Haas F1 Team |
14 |
| 7 |
Aston Martin F1 Team |
10 |
| 8 |
Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber |
6 |
| 9 |
Racing Bulls |
3 |
| 10 |
Alpine F1 Team |
0 |
Hamilton and Leclerc generally lacked pace in Shanghai – with the exception of the Sprint race – and they struggled to find performance in the wet in Melbourne. Fred Vasseur revealed to Ted Kravitz that Hamilton’s race in Australia was ‘compromised’ by an issue in pre-season.
Speaking on the The F1 Show, Kravitz thinks this problem correlates to his disqualification in China: “So I had a chat with Fred Vasseur on Thursday, he was just hanging around by the TV pen, probably waiting for someone more important with an actual confirmed meeting time with Fred Vasseur.
“I just went up to him and said: ‘How are you doing?’ And kind of out of nowhere, he said two things. First of all, Lewis’ race performance in Melbourne was really compromised from not really having a practice race in Bahrain testing, where we had a technical problem which stopped us doing the race.
“And then the second thing he said was about the team radio. He said: ‘[I] don’t think this is a thing, it’s not a problem, they’re all absolutely fine.’
“I don’t think it’s insignificant Simon [Lazenby] where the plank wear thing happened on the first dry race.
“I have a feeling it’s something carried over from Bahrain testing where they didn’t manage to do a race simulation and the first dry race that Lewis has had was the Chinese Grand Prix and then they discover this thing.”
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Where do Ferrari really stand on the performance ladder after the first two races of 2025?
After Melbourne and Shanghai, it is difficult to pinpoint where Ferrari are at. Going from Hamilton winning the Sprint in the latter to then being disqualified from the race after lacking speed for much of it is confusing.
The SF-25 seems to have a very small optimal window for performance, which the Brit extracted in the Sprint in China and dominated the field. In contrast, on Sundays, the Ferrari has generally been behind McLaren, Mercedes and even the Red Bull of Max Verstappen.
Bizarrely, engineers found Leclerc was quicker after damaging his front wing in Shanghai. He collided with Hamilton at turn one at the start – taking a piece of the left side off – but was able to display stronger pace than his teammate afterwards.
This does not give off promising signs after the first two races, which have merited only 17 points. Ferrari’s double DSQ highlighted their ‘performance anxiety’ in 2025 as their car proved much more complex in pre-season than they had thought.
