Hamilton fears long road ahead with Ferrari after ‘horrible’ Saudi GP

Lewis Hamilton’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was a low point in his nascent Ferrari tenure, marked by a performance he described as “horrible” and utterly devoid of positives.

The seven-time world champion finished a distant seventh, trailing his teammate Charles Leclerc by a staggering 31 seconds.

After showing early promise with a sprint win in Shanghai last month, Hamilton now finds himself grappling with a car he simply cannot connect with – and a team-mate who is increasingly leaving him in the dust.

The Briton’s blunt post-race remarks painted a grim picture of his struggles, raising concerns about his near-term prospects with the Scuderia as the 2025 season unfolds.

A Weekend of Discomfort and Disparity

Hamilton’s woes in Jeddah were evident from the outset as he struggled to get to grips with his SF-25 and find the rhythm and flow so necessary to master the venue’s challenging high-speed street circuit.

Reflecting on his race, Hamilton told Sky F1, “there wasn't one second” he was comfortable in the car, adding, “Clearly the car is capable of being P3. Charles did a great job today. So I can't blame it on the car.”

In a subsequent session with the written press, Hamilton doubled down on his assessment, stating there were zero positives to take away.

©Ferrari

“Nothing positive from today. Except for Charles finishing on the podium, which is great for the team,” he said. “[On my end] it was horrible. It was horrible. Not enjoyable at all.

“I was just sliding around. First stint, massive understeer, car not turning. And then massive deg. And then the second stint, slightly better balance but still just no pace. Yeah, pretty bad.”

It wasn’t just the race that left a sour taste. Hamilton was at a loss to explain how things went so wrong so quickly after his high point in Shanghai.

"Struggling to feel the car underneath me. But there's no particular thing. There's nothing to say 'hey, this is the issue',” he said.

No Blame on the Car, No Easy Fix in Sight

While the Ferrari SF-25 clearly has potential — as demonstrated by Leclerc’s podium — Hamilton dismissed the idea that the machinery was holding him back.

"Clearly the car is capable of being P3. Charles did a great job today. So I can't blame it on the car," he told Sky F1. "There wasn't one second I was comfortable in the car."

©Ferrari

The Briton’s comments revealed both confusion and resignation about his current state. He acknowledged that Leclerc’s familiarity with the team and car is giving him the upper hand.

"I mean, he's been driving this car for a long time, so he definitely knows it really well," Hamilton said when asked if there was anything to learn from his team-mate’s approach. "There's plenty in the data, for sure."

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But despite diving into the numbers, Hamilton admitted: "Honestly, like, it doesn't look massively different in the data. Just... I go slower through the corners."

When it came to set-up differences, Hamilton was again unsure.

"We do have slightly different set-ups, I have to look and see whether that set-up is the way the car likes to be. Yeah, him and his side are definitely obviously doing a better job."

Dimming Hopes for 2025 — and Uncertainty Beyond

Hamilton’s body language and tone suggested that Jeddah was not an isolated concern, but the beginning of a potentially difficult stretch. His outlook for the next races — and the season as a whole — was bleak.

"In qualifying it's [a question of] me extracting performance. In the race today, I tried everything, and the car just didn't want to go quicker," he said. "I think I'll struggle also in Miami. I don't know how much longer I'll struggle for but it's definitely painful."

When asked whether the rest of the season might unfold in similarly disappointing fashion, Hamilton was candid.

"At the moment there's no fix. So... this is how it's going to be for the rest of the year. It's going to be painful."

Looking further ahead to 2026, when Formula 1 will usher in a new ruleset — one which could potentially change the landscape and level the playing field — Hamilton wasn’t yet pinning his hopes there either.

"I don't know anything about next year's car, if I'm going to be honest," he admitted. "I'm not spending any time to think about it. Let's hope [it will be]. Less ground effect, let's hope things shift a little bit."

If the current trajectory holds, 2025 could prove one of the toughest years in the seven-time world champion’s storied career.

For now, Hamilton is left searching for answers — and relief that, for the moment, seems nowhere in sight.

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