Ferrari arrive at the 2025 Formula 1 season finale with two drivers experiencing sharply divergent realities inside the same car. Charles Leclerc will start fifth after another controlled and committed qualifying performance. Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, will begin from 16th after yet another Q1 exit, compounding a season-long trend in which the seven-time World Champion has struggled to find confidence in the SF-25.
The contrast between the pair could not be more significant. Leclerc has repeatedly dragged the unstable Ferrari into competitive territory, while Hamilton, despite similar equipment and identical opportunities, has failed to extract meaningful performance. This disparity has been a defining storyline of Ferrari’s season, and one that raises uncomfortable questions for the British driver.
Leclerc Dominates the Intra-Team Battle
Leclerc’s qualifying record against Hamilton—19 to 5—is not merely decisive; it is emblematic of how the two have coped with the SF-25. Hamilton arrived at Ferrari hoping to revive his career after losing out 19–5 to George Russell in qualifying during his final year at Mercedes. Yet, the same weakness has followed him into Maranello.
Leclerc admitted he takes little satisfaction from starting fifth, saying: “It hurts to be satisfied with fifth place, but that’s simply the situation we’re in.” He was keen to stress that he is extracting all he can from what Ferrari have given him: “The only thing I can take away is the small amount of joy I feel at having maximised our package. That’s exactly what we managed to do today.”
Meanwhile, Hamilton was again unable to access the same performance window. His Q1 elimination, his fourth in a row, highlighted the momentum swing inside Ferrari that has lasted all season long.
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Driving on a Knife Edge: Leclerc’s Commitment vs. Hamilton’s Struggles
The SF-23 demands absolute commitment. Its narrow operating window rewards aggression rather than caution, and Leclerc has been willing to step onto that tightrope.
“I’m driving the car well, but I can feel how tricky it is,” he said. “You simply have to drive it flat out. That either gets you into the wall, or knocks you out of Q1. And then you have to do the same thing in Q2, and then again in Q3.”
He admitted that in Q2, he “almost hit the wall a couple of times,” which is not an exaggeration, but rather the methodology required to unlock the SF-25’s pace.
Hamilton, however, has struggled to operate the car at that threshold. While Leclerc extracted the maximum and reached Q3, Hamilton found himself unable to commit in the same way, unable to find confidence, and unable to repeat his teammate’s success. With each qualifying session, the difference in approach—and results—has grown clearer.
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Is the SF-25 One of Ferrari’s Worst? Leclerc Stops Short, Hamilton Suffers the Consequences
Leclerc rejected the idea that the SF-25 is the worst Ferrari he has driven, but his wording was telling.
“I wouldn’t describe it as the worst, but it’s certainly one of the most difficult to drive. That’s clear.” He has relied on what he calls an “extreme setup” to derive performance from the car. This setup may not be workable for drivers who prefer stability, consistency, or progressive balance.
Hamilton is in that category. The same car that Leclerc can push to the edge has repeatedly snapped out of Hamilton’s control, bottomed out unexpectedly, or simply refused to rotate in the way he needs. The result has been a season of missed Q2 appearances and lost Sundays.
Leclerc openly admits he will not miss the SF-25. “I’m glad this was the last qualifying in this car.” Yet, his ability to still produce results with it makes his teammate’s struggles stand out even more starkly.
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Hamilton’s Abu Dhabi Collapse: A Difficult Season Ends With Another Blow
Hamilton’s challenging Saturday began with a crash in FP3, after bottoming out in Turn 9. Ferrari rebuilt the car overnight, and Hamilton reported it “felt great” after the changes, but the final result told a different story.
He missed Q2 by 0.008 seconds and was visibly deflated afterward. When asked whether he was referencing his own performance in a frustrated radio message, Hamilton simply nodded.
Later, speaking to the written media, he explained: “The crash certainly didn’t help. I have no words to express my feelings, just a lot of anger.”
He admitted he has no plans for improving his side of the garage heading into 2026 and does not know how he will mentally reset during the short winter break.
“Time will tell. It’s the shortest break,” he said, referencing the early Barcelona test in January. Hamilton has effectively written off Sunday’s race: “From where I’m starting, there’s not much you can do.”
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Leclerc’s Q3 Effort Shows the Car’s Potential, If Driven Perfectly
Leclerc managed to coax meaningful pace from the Ferrari by leaning into its aggressiveness. He revealed his car had been completely rebuilt between FP2 and FP3: “It felt a bit better afterwards, but you couldn’t see that in the performance in FP3. In qualifying, I was really happy with the car, especially with my two laps in Q3. I gave it my all.”
Finishing just 0.085 seconds behind George Russell, he demonstrated exactly what the SF-23 can produce when handled at the limit.
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Reflections on Hamilton’s Mercedes Era: How Much Was the Car?
Hamilton’s struggles this season inevitably raise broader questions about his period of dominance at Mercedes. For nearly a decade, he was the sport’s benchmark, powered by some of the most complete, cohesive, and stable cars in Formula One history.
But 2021 marked the beginning of a gradual downturn, and 2022–2025 have solidified a pattern: Hamilton’s performance falls sharply when the car becomes unpredictable, unstable, or requires driving styles radically different from his strengths.
This does not erase his achievements, but it asks the question: How much of Hamilton’s golden era was down to him, and how much was down to the machinery at his disposal? Was his dominance a reflection of unrivaled talent, or did the Mercedes dynasty create conditions in which he simply couldn’t be caught?
The contrast with Leclerc is pointed. Two drivers with elite reputations have faced the same flawed Ferrari, yet only one can extract performance from it. The numbers speak clearly, and they do not flatter Hamilton.
The Irony of Abu Dhabi: From Title Decider to Starting 16th Again
There is a striking irony in Hamilton starting P16 in Abu Dhabi. In the infamous 2021 season finale, arguably, the moment where his era of dominance began to unravel, Nicholas Latifi also started from 16th. His late-race crash effectively determined the championship outcome, snatching an eighth world title away from Hamilton and delivering it to Max Verstappen.
Hamilton now finds himself beginning a race from the same grid slot that once indirectly shaped his legacy. With three drivers in contention for the 2025 title, one cannot help but wonder: Might Hamilton, even from 16th place, still have some unintended influence on the championship outcome this year? Fate has placed him back where his fortunes once pivoted. Whether history echoes itself or offers redemption remains to be seen, but Hamilton’s parting statement of “From where I’m starting, there’s not much you can do.” could prove premature.
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Lewis Hamilton left his Mercedes Formula One team after twelve seasons of huge success together. In fact in F1 history the partnership between the team and the seven times champion was the most successful ever.
Yet following the failure by Mercedes to pit Hamilton at a crucial time in the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix which cost him a record eight drivers’ title, Hamilton was never the same driver again.
In 2022 Lewis failed to win a Grand Prix for the first time in his career and as if to add insult to injury, he was outscored by his new junior team mate, George Russell, who won his maiden Grand Prix in Brazil to clinch the inter-team mate battle.
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That year saw a big change in the FIA car design regulations as the new ground effect car specifications changed the face of F1 racing and Mercedes, unlike in 2014, missed the brief. Much was expected of the zero pod W13 car design, but early F1 analysts expectations were quickly dashed.
“We got it wrong,” Hamilton complained early season after being lapped by Max Verstappen at the Emilia Romagne Grand Prix. “Nothing we do…seems to work” said Lewis after a difficult Friday session in Montreal. “We’re trying different set-ups… for me it was a disaster”.
As George Russell became the points leader out of the Mercedes driver’s, Hamilton’s narrative was that he was the driver doing extreme setup experiments to help the team understand the car. “We are obviously not fighting for the championship. But we are fighting to understand the car and improve and progress through the year,” Hamilton claimed at the British Grand Prix.
Whilst in 2023, Hamilton was able to beat his team mate, it was yet another winless season for the British driver. Come the early European season, Hamilton was publicly criticising the team for failing to listen to him in terms of improving the handling characteristics of the W14…READ MORE ON THIS STORY
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