Ferrari disappointing? Lewis Hamilton doesn’t give up and sheds light on the SF-25’s issues. Lewis Hamilton believes in Ferrari and sheds light on the issues with his car.

After a rather disappointing start to the season, with few points, a Sprint victory, and a disqualification, Lewis Hamilton returns to Japan motivated to discover his car. Despite the issues and a disappointing Ferrari SF-25 in the first two races, Lewis Hamilton believes in the potential and thoroughly analyzes his start at Ferrari.

Speaking to the media on the Thursday before the Japanese GP, Lewis Hamilton thoroughly examined the initial issues faced with the SF-25. At the root of his fluctuating performances, the Briton admits, is the difficulty in better understanding the setup of the Ferrari cars.

Both drivers struggled in the Melbourne and Shanghai races, with setup changes that caused the Ferrari to move like a crab, going backward. The positive exception was the Sprint pole in China, where Hamilton placed his SF-25 in front of everyone, showing an improvement in managing fast laps, an aspect that still needs work compared to 2024.

This performance was later significantly reduced due to the modified setup for the race, with an increased ride height and a stiffened rear. A series of changes that compromised drivability both in qualifying and the race. The performances showed a Ferrari clearly falling short of pre-season expectations.

When asked about the main reason behind the difficulties of the SF-25, Lewis Hamilton responded: “It’s probably a combination of several things, but I think most of them have to do with the setup.”

Setup refinement needed on the SF-25
“I’ve told you I’m still learning to get to know this car, so I haven’t yet tried all the elements available. Ultimately, I made the wrong decision on the setup for Saturday during qualifying, and I had to live with it for the race. If we had made fewer changes to the car, or if the changes we made had been an improvement, I think we could have qualified in the top three, with a very different result. But that wasn’t the case, and it was really hard to drive from qualifying on, and then the same balance on Sunday, so we just had to persevere.” – he pointed out.

Despite a quiet start, Lewis Hamilton expresses being very satisfied with his start at the new team, explaining how difficult it is to adapt. He also rejects all criticism directed at the team regarding how the race weekend is approached.

“I believe that outside of that garage, most people completely underestimate what we’re actually doing. When we talk about setups and changes we make, all the different graphs we look at for aerodynamics, corner balance, mechanical balance, roll balance—these different things we’re trying to play with and perfect over a weekend—it’s another thing altogether.” – the seven-time Formula 1 world champion concluded.