Lewis Hamilton’s troublesome transition into life at Ferrari reached one other low level on the 2025 System 1 Qatar Grand Prix, because the seven-time world champion suffered a second consecutive early qualifying elimination. For the primary time in his Ferrari profession, Lewis Hamilton has recorded back-to-back Q1 exits, ending Saturday’s session in a irritating P18 and persevering with what has turn out to be a disastrous weekend in Lusail.
The 40-year-old British driver has now completed each qualifying classes held on the Lusail Worldwide Circuit in 18th place. Even Saturday’s System 1 Dash supplied little aid. Lewis Hamilton was compelled to start the 100km dash from the pit lane after a deeply compromised Friday session, finally crossing the road solely in P17. Ferrari’s poor kind stood in stark distinction to the remainder of the sector and additional uncovered the shortcomings of the Ferrari F1-25.
On Friday throughout SQ1, Lewis Hamilton registered a 1:22.043, a time that positioned him forward of solely Alpine pair Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto. In Saturday’s normal qualifying, he improved considerably to a 1:20.907, but nonetheless fell 0.254s in need of progressing into Q2. His struggles have been evident: solely Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto produced slower laps, by margins of 0.151s and 0.230s respectively. In the meantime, his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc extracted extra pace from the identical equipment, setting a 1:20.564 to position P9 in Q1 earlier than finally getting by to Q3.
Lewis Hamilton battles confidence points with the Ferrari F1-25 throughout Qatar GP qualifying
Sky Sports activities F1 pundit Karun Chandhok instantly picked up on the underlying drawback after reviewing Lewis Hamilton’s onboard footage from the ultimate moments of Q1. In line with the Indian former racing driver and broadcaster the core challenge was not a single mistake or an remoted setup misstep, however a basic insecurity within the Ferrari F1-25’s stability and grip ranges. He urged that Lewis Hamilton merely couldn’t decide to key corners with the peace of mind required at a high-speed circuit like Lusail.
Whereas a number of rivals carried near-full throttle by the medium- and high-speed bends, Lewis Hamilton repeatedly needed to raise, dropping momentum at a number of factors across the lap. Chandhok highlighted Turns 3 and 4 as notably revealing: the info confirmed hesitation on the throttle, with Hamilton making use of a number of small inputs moderately than one easy, dedicated software. On the tight left-hand Flip 6 hairpin, oversteer on entry value him one other chunk of time.
Chandhok additionally identified that Lewis Hamilton bled extra time at Flip 15 than many of the grid, as others executed solely a light-weight raise whereas the Briton was compelled to again out much more aggressively. The previous System 1 driver urged that these repeated moments confirmed the Ferrari star combating a automobile that merely didn’t give him the boldness wanted to extract full efficiency—one thing most drivers wouldn’t anticipate at a crew of Ferrari’s stature.
Ferrari’s misfiring 2025 marketing campaign provides one other setback as Lewis Hamilton labels it his ‘worst season ever’
Ferrari’s struggles with Lewis Hamilton are now not restricted to a single weekend. The Scuderia additionally witnessed him qualify in P20 on the Las Vegas Grand Prix, marking the primary time in his profession he had been final on pure efficiency. Whereas torrential rain performed a job in Las Vegas, Qatar supplied no such excuse, but the issues resurfaced simply as severely.
The triple Q1 exit marks some of the troublesome durations ever skilled by Lewis Hamilton in System 1. His debut season with Ferrari, anticipated to spark a resurgence for the Scuderia, has as a substitute produced one disappointing chapter after one other. Even his spirited restoration in Las Vegas—the place he climbed from final to P10 earlier than inheriting P8 after the McLaren double disqualification—did little to lighten the tone. Lewis Hamilton admitted after São Paulo that the marketing campaign had turn out to be a “nightmare,” and he has since urged that 2025 now stands as his “worst season ever” within the sport.
Primarily based on his present factors tally, Lewis Hamilton is on target to report his lowest scoring season for the reason that fashionable scoring system was launched in 2010. For a driver with 104 pole positions and a record-breaking résumé, such outcomes would as soon as have appeared unthinkable. But Ferrari’s inconsistency, coupled with the unpredictable dealing with of the F1-25, has created a downward spiral that neither the Briton nor Ferrari have been capable of halt to this point.
With strain mounting from the Ferrari hierarchy and the championship slipping even additional away, the Qatar Grand Prix weekend has solely amplified the size of the problem dealing with each Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc because the 2025 System 1 season continues.
Nov 30, 2025
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