Max Verstappen Claims First Sprint Win of 2025 F1 Season as Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari Struggles Continue at Spa
Max Verstappen secured his first Sprint Race victory of the 2025 Formula 1 season by holding off persistent pressure from McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris throughout the 15-lap event at the Belgian Grand Prix. While the reigning world champion demonstrated exceptional defensive skill to maintain his lead from start to finish, it was Lewis Hamilton’s ongoing struggles in the Ferrari SF-25 that captured the attention of Formula 1 pundits.
Lewis Hamilton began the Sprint from a disappointing 18th on the grid, having failed to progress from Sprint Qualifying 1 on Friday. Despite Ferrari introducing a rear suspension upgrade for the Spa-Francorchamps weekend, the seven-time world champion appeared to continue battling with an unstable rear end — an issue that has plagued his adaptation to the Maranello team’s 2025 challenger.
During the lead-up to the Belgian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton spoke candidly about the effort he is putting in behind closed doors to help Ferrari’s engineers improve the SF-25’s performance. The British driver made it clear that his motivation stems from a desire to avoid the fate of previous world champions who joined Ferrari but failed to deliver championship success with the historic team. Hamilton is determined to play an active role in development and not simply rely on others to tailor the car to his needs.
Sky Sports Formula 1 analyst Martin Brundle was particularly vocal during the Sprint broadcast about the visible difficulties Hamilton faced on track. Observing onboard footage from Kimi Antonelli’s car, which was following Lewis Hamilton at the time, Martin Brundle commented that the rear traction on the Briton’s SF-25 looked especially poor. He pointed out the moment at the exit of the Bus Stop chicane, suggesting that Hamilton’s Ferrari appeared unstable and slow to accelerate, especially when viewed from Antonelli’s perspective.
David Croft, also on Sky Sports commentary duty, added that the Bus Stop chicane was the same corner where Hamilton had suffered a lock-up during the Sprint Qualifying session the day before. Croft reported that Ferrari had confirmed there was no mechanical fault that could explain the lock-up, indicating that the issue did not stem from a component failure or setup irregularity.
Ferrari arrived in Belgium with a revised rear suspension system that had previously undergone testing at Mugello. According to sources within the team, the engineers had been “cautiously optimistic” about the performance gains the update might offer. However, it appears that in racing conditions — particularly under the stress of Sprint format limitations — the changes may not yet be delivering the desired stability or grip, especially from the rear axle of the SF-25.
Sky F1 presenter Naomi Schiff also offered her analysis ahead of the Sprint, noting that Ferrari engineers had reviewed Lewis Hamilton’s lock-up during his final flying lap in qualifying and were unable to trace the problem to any specific technical fault. Schiff suggested there had initially been speculation about a possible gearbox-related issue, such as an erratic downshift, that might have destabilized the car on corner entry — but Ferrari had since ruled that out as well.
Without a clear mechanical explanation, Schiff concluded that the incident had to be attributed to driver error. She described Hamilton’s lock-up as “very uncharacteristic,” particularly given the dry track conditions at the time. Schiff added that it was possible Hamilton had failed to adjust his brake bias appropriately, a minor but crucial setting that can significantly affect rear-end behavior under braking.
The timing of Ferrari’s rear suspension upgrade proved far from ideal. Sprint weekends allow only one free practice session on Friday morning before competitive sessions begin, leaving very little room for experimentation or fine-tuning new components. This constraint meant that Ferrari, like many teams, had limited opportunity to evaluate the changes under varying track conditions. Unfortunately for Hamilton, it appears the update has not yet brought the level of consistency and predictability he requires.
As the team turns its attention to Saturday’s Grand Prix qualifying session and Sunday’s main event, Ferrari will be under pressure to extract more performance from the updated SF-25. The Tifosi will hope that the engineers can quickly analyze the data and make adjustments to provide both Lewis Hamilton and his Maranello teammate Charles Leclerc with a more competitive and stable platform.
Lewis Hamilton’s intense behind-the-scenes commitment is evident, but with limited results so far, he and Ferrari remain in search of the right setup balance to transform their promising development direction into tangible race-day performance.
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