Lewis Hamilton is not having the ‘reset’ to his Formula One career that the move to Ferrari was supposed to deliver. Having been bested by his Mercedes team mate George Russell in two of their three years racing together, the seven times world champion believed a change of environment would reignite an improved level of performance.
Yet the fairy tale move to the most iconic of F1 teams has in fact turned into a nightmare for Hamilton. His Sprint race win in China now seems a long time ago and his subsequent performances have been well down on his team mate Charles Leclerc.
The coming weekend in Spa would have held much hope for Lewis, who has won in the track which wends it way through the Ardennes forrest on five occasions. Only Michael Schumacher has more wins in Spa Francorhamp and indeed Hamilton holds the record number of pole positions with six in his career.
Ferrari upgrades in Belgium
Ferrari have brought a raft of upgrades to Belgium, many designed to help Hamilton who continues to struggle with rear stability in his SF-25. Yet the first two days of the race weekend have been a disaster for the former world champion, as he locked the rear wheels during SQ1, spinning out of the session and set to start the Sprint in P18.
In the race on Saturday morning, Lewis struggled to make up ground and while he finished in P15, one of the three place improvements was handed to him on a plate as Pierre Gasly was forced to withdraw before the start.
Come Grand Prix qualifying, Hamilton said he would put the early disappointment form the weekend behind him, but unfortunately matters would go from bad to worse. As the track ramped up in the first qualifying session, Hamilton went early for his first run found himself down in P16 with one effort remaining. As Lewis crossed the finish line he was listed as P7 on the timing sheets, but within moments race control revealed he had exceeded track limits at Radillon and his lap time was deleted.
Even so his first time set was just 0.029 seconds slower than Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto, who believed he had been eliminated, but was reinstated for Q2 following the decision of the F1 stewards.
Hamilton urging Ferrari reorganisation
Coming into the weekend Hamilton revealed he had been part of a number of significant meetings back in Maranello. He further supplied Ferrari with a number of documents o how he believed the team could improve the car and their overall operations.
“The reason for it is that I see a huge amount of potential within this team,” the 40-year-old said. “The passion, nothing comes close to that. It is a huge organisation and there’s a lot of moving parts, and not all of them firing on all the cylinders they need to be.” Yet come Grand Prix qualifying, it was not the car to blame but Lewi himself, who made an unnecessary track limits transgression which sees him start from his lowest position on Sunday since joining the Scuderia.
Commentating on Radio 5 live, the 1996 F1 champion Damon Hill was critical of Hamilton’s performance and why he felt the need to take the line he did into the Eau Rouge corner with the result being an “embarrassment” for Ferrari.
Hamilton refused to exit his car as it was wheeled back into the garage, with Damon Hill observing, “he’s no longer able to take part in qualifying. [Hamilton is] back where he was after yesterday’s Sprint Qualifying and there’s a lot of very embarrassed-looking people at Ferrari in the garage…
Russell’s ‘needy’ appeal to Mercedes
Hill calls Hamilton a Ferrari ’embarassment’
“He just went too far across the top of the hill. His car is actually all off the track, and that means his time is deleted. He didn’t have to do that. I don’t know why he felt the need to use that much track. You don’t actually stand to gain that much.”
Qualifying in Spa marks Hamilton’s worst result on a Saturday since joining Ferrari, his previous worst were P12’s in Miami and Imola although he recovered in Florida to P8 in the race and to P4 at the first race of the year in Italy.
While Charles Leclerc has claimed four podiums for Ferrari this year, Hamilton’s best finish was a P4 in Imola, Austria and at his home Grand Prix at Silverstone. He currently lies 16 points behind Charles Leclerc but the tale of the team mates is far worse than Lewis would have hoped for.
Hamilton is now 9-4 down on the Monegasque in Grand Prix qualifying and a shocking 10-2 behind in terms of finishing positions on Sunday. His deficit in qualifying to Leclerc is approaching 0.15 seconds and Hamilton is again struggling to match the performance of a team mate, as he did with George Russell.
Hamilton apologies for his unacceptable behaviour
When asked how the car felt with the new upgrades Ferrari have brought this weekend, Hamilton preferred to to avoid the question. “I was the same as I was for the rest of the weekend,” he replied. “We made some changes, the car didn’t feel terrible but it was tough for us because we had to put a second set of tyres on just to get through Q1, so not great.
“But from my side, another mistake so I’ve really got to look internally and apologise to the team, because it’s unacceptable to be out in both Q1s. It’s a very, very poor performance for myself.”
Lewis demeanour in the media pen was downtrodden, as he detailed how Ferrari would no longer upgrade their 2025 car. “We have had upgrades, but I think this is probably it for the rest of the year. This season has been a tricky one,” concluded Hamilton.
Meanwhile Charles Leclerc was more upbeat in his assessment of Ferrari’s progress despite the deficit in lap time to McLaren. “It is strange to say that as it is still three tenths [off] and third place but we thought we were quite far back, but that was a really, really good lap and I loved how the car felt. It took some time to maximise those upgrades on the car, but I have felt comfortable with the car since FP1. It is good to have a qualifying where you look back and know you left nothing on the table.”
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