Sound the alarms! Hamilton's Ferrari stint 'going the wrong way'

13:09, 30 Apr

byNorberto Mujica

If Ferrari has not been able to live up to expectations during the start of the 2025 season, then what can be said of Lewis Hamilton's still short tenure at the Italian team?

Sky Sports analyst and former F1 driver, Karun Chandhok, looking at the first five race weekends of the 2025 F1 season, has assessed Hamilton's sole success in red - so far - as an atypical result.

"The worry for me is that [the China Sprint] is now becoming the outlier," said Chandhok on The F1 Show.

Whilst Ferrari does have a big gap in terms of performance between their Saturdays and Sundays, which they need to bridge, Hamilton's own performances have indeed been sub-par, particularly when compared to teammate Charles Leclerc's, who has been in much better form than the 7-time world champion.

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"Since the Sunday of China where Leclerc got ahead of him in the race, despite having a broken front wing, Leclerc was quicker. The trend is the worry for me."

In Jeddah, the upward trend in terms of the delta between both Ferrari drivers was confirmed yet again, which Chandhok sees is 'going the wrong way', as Hamilton should be able to narrow the gap closer and closer as the acclimatisation process progresses.

"In Australia, Lewis was 0.16s off Charles, in Japan it became 0.30s, in Bahrain it became 0.59s, [in] Saudi it became 0.60s."

"For a driver who we are hoping becomes more and more accustomed to life at Ferrari, that gap should have been closing down, but it's going the wrong way."

"In Saudi, he just looked so deflated. Looking at the data, that as a driver, psychologically, is like 'where do I begin?'".