Jolyon Palmer Raises Purple Flag Over Lewis Hamilton’s Struggles With Ferrari’s 2025 F1 Automobile
Lewis Hamilton is hoping that the prolonged pause between the Saudi Arabian and Miami Grands Prix has supplied the psychological reset he desperately wants following a difficult begin to his Ferrari profession throughout the first triple-header of the 2025 Formulation 1 season.
Whereas Ferrari entered the season with excessive expectations, the Scuderia’s marketing campaign has to date failed to fulfill inside and fan expectations—apart from two excessive factors. One got here in Saudi Arabia, the place Charles Leclerc secured the staff’s first Grand Prix podium of the 12 months. The opposite got here in China, when Hamilton secured pole place and went on to win the Dash Race, a efficiency that briefly reignited hopes for a breakthrough.
Nevertheless, underlying technical limitations have emerged. Ferrari’s SF-25 has proven a bent to underperform when arrange with the next journey peak—an aerodynamic compromise that has affected each qualifying tempo and race consistency. Regardless of bringing a revised ground to Bahrain in an effort to resolve the difficulty, the answer has been solely partially efficient.
Lewis Hamilton’s personal efficiency has additionally been marred by misfortune. After a promising outing in Shanghai, his disqualification for extreme plank put on nullified the beneficial properties and left Ferrari scrambling to regain momentum. In the meantime, his hole to Charles Leclerc—particularly in qualifying—has raised recent issues.
Former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer believes he could have pinpointed a deeper concern that’s troubling the seven-time world champion. Talking on the F1 Nation Podcast, Palmer analyzed Lewis Hamilton’s opening races with Ferrari and drew parallels to the Briton’s late-era struggles at Mercedes.
In keeping with the previous Formulation 1 driver, Lewis Hamilton seems to be combating an incapability to constantly really feel the restrict of grip obtainable from the automobile. He famous that the Ferrari appears to behave unpredictably in essential phases of cornering—entry, mid-corner, and exit—which is making it troublesome for Lewis Hamilton to extract its full potential. Palmer noticed that when the automobile behaves as anticipated, The British driver can nonetheless show flashes of brilliance harking back to his championship-winning years, however these moments are more and more uncommon.
Palmer warned that this inconsistency echoes the identical points Hamilton confronted at Mercedes throughout the early ground-effect years, significantly in 2022 and 2023. The automobile would seem aggressive one session after which fully lose efficiency the subsequent, leaving Hamilton puzzled about what had modified. In keeping with Palmer, what’s particularly regarding is that Hamilton, even after a number of races and ample knowledge evaluation, nonetheless appears unsure about easy methods to resolve these recurring issues. He added that Hamilton appeared unusually dejected following the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix—maybe probably the most downbeat he’s been since becoming a member of Ferrari.
This ongoing battle raises the query of whether or not Ferrari’s 2025 automobile is exacerbating the very points Hamilton hoped to go away behind at Mercedes. The brand new setting was presupposed to be a recent chapter, but acquainted frustrations are resurfacing. Palmer’s feedback counsel that Hamilton is as soon as once more caught in a vicious cycle of imbalance and inconsistency, the place the automobile’s behaviour varies from session to session, undermining confidence and rhythm.
Ferrari’s present state of affairs could also be evoking what Palmer described as Hamilton’s “worst nightmare”: a technically restricted automobile that doesn’t reply predictably to driver enter. This lack of coherence between driver suggestions and car response is very damaging throughout qualifying, the place Hamilton has notably lagged behind Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque’s expertise with the staff and proficiency in one-lap efficiency have solely additional highlighted the disparity between the 2 drivers.
Furthermore, the Briton’s setup preferences look like diverging considerably from Charles Leclerc’s. In keeping with staff sources, the 2 drivers are requesting reverse modifications to key parameters—one thing which will counsel Hamilton hasn’t but established a agency grasp on what path will remedy his particular points. This not solely hampers growth but additionally creates inside complexities inside the staff’s strategy to race weekends.
To make issues worse for Hamilton, his present factors deficit paints a stark image. He trails Leclerc by 16 factors within the Drivers’ Championship and can be behind Andrea Kimi Antonelli, the teenage prodigy who changed him at Mercedes. This solely provides to the stress.
Parallels are actually being drawn between Hamilton’s trajectory and that of different current underperformers within the sport. Daniel Ricciardo’s fall from type at McLaren and subsequent struggles with RB function a cautionary story. Nevertheless, not like Daniel Ricciardo, Lewis Hamilton’s seat at Ferrari is probably going safe for the close to future as a result of his star energy and long-term contract. That mentioned, the basic challenges stay unresolved.
In abstract, Ferrari’s 2025 automobile has but to supply Hamilton with the aggressive edge he wants. And with early season flaws nonetheless current, questions on whether or not he can adapt shortly sufficient—or whether or not Ferrari can ship a automobile extra suited to his driving fashion—have gotten more and more pressing. As Palmer warns, this can be greater than only a sluggish begin; it could possibly be a continuation of a deeper concern that has adopted Hamilton from Brackley to Maranello.
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