Lewis Hamilton called his race drive in the 2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix “horrible” and views his ongoing struggle to gel with his new Ferrari Formula One car as a “painful” experience.
The seven-time world champion finished seventh in the Jeddah race on Sunday, which McLaren’s Oscar Piastri won. Hamilton came home 31 seconds down on his teammate Charles Leclerc. In the other Ferrari, Leclerc scored the Italian team’s first podium finish of the season with third place behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. The gap between the two Ferrari teammates was the biggest from the opening five races of the new campaign.
When asked if he could take any positives from the event when speaking to reporters post-race in Jeddah, Hamilton replied: “Zero.”
“Nothing positive to take from today, except for Charles,” he added. “Charles on the podium is great for the team.”
Hamilton said his race, which included a lengthy battle with Lando Norris in the other McLaren, where Hamilton did manage to outfox a much faster car for several laps, was “horrible and “not enjoyable at all.”
“I was just sliding around,” he continued. “First stint, massive understeer, car not turning, and then massive deg. And then the second stint, slightly better balance, but still just no pace.”
Hamilton felt he “tried everything and the car just didn’t (respond).”
Although Leclerc’s result was the first that brought F1 silverware for Ferrari in 2025, Hamilton won a race this year at the China sprint event. He claimed pole position for that contest and then dominated from the front, but after making set-up changes for the longer primary race in Shanghai, Hamilton’s dominant position was eroded. He finished sixth in the Chinese Grand Prix and even waved Leclerc by in a team orders swap, even as the other Ferrari circulated with a damaged front wing. Both were disqualified post-race for separate technical infringements.
Hamilton said he does not “have an answer” for why his fortunes have swung so dramatically around the China sprint success. Two F1 races on from that event, he said he was not “doing a good enough job” at Ferrari after qualifying ninth last weekend in Bahrain, where Leclerc started that race in second.
“It’s nothing (I can explain),” he said. “I’m struggling with the balance. Struggling to feel the car beneath me. But there’s no particular thing. There’s nothing to say, ‘hey, this is the issue’.”
Leclerc has beaten Hamilton in every grand prix race so far in 2025. Hamilton has suggested a difference in how they set up their cars in terms of mechanical balance, and the aerodynamic platform kit is making a difference to their results. Leclerc has also driven for Ferrari since 2019.
“He’s been driving this car for a long time, so he definitely knows it pretty well,” Hamilton said of the difference to Leclerc in Jeddah. “There’s plenty in the data, for sure. Honestly, it doesn’t look massively different in the data. Just that (I’m) slower through the corners.”
Hamilton added: “We do have slightly different set-ups. We’ll have to look and see whether that set-up is the way the car likes to be set. Him and his side (of engineers) are definitely also doing a better job.”
After an intense run of five races in six weeks to open the 2025 campaign, F1 has a one-week break before heading to the Miami Grand Prix next month. But Hamilton is braced for more of the same in Florida.
“I think I’ll struggle also in Miami,” he said. “I don’t know how long I’ll struggle for, but it’s definitely painful.”
“At the moment, there’s no fix,” he continued. “So, if this is how it’s going to be for the rest of the year, it’s going to be painful.”
After five races, Hamilton is seventh in the drivers’ championship with 31 points.
(Top photo: Kym Illman/Getty Images)