The ‘worrying’ trend in Lewis Hamilton’s performances at Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton’s deficit to teammate Charles Leclerc has grown with nearly every race in the 2025 Formula 1 season, with last weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix marking a new low point for him at Ferrari.

Hamilton’s results had already been waning off at Mercedes at the advent of the ground-effect era, but his high-profile move to Ferrari was supposed to mark a major reset and aid his pursuit of a record eighth title.

While early signs in 2025 were positive, with his victory in the China sprint race making international headlines, things have only been gone downhill for him since then.

Hamilton’s qualifying deficit to Leclerc widened to over half a second in the last two rounds, a trend that has been described as “worrying” by driver-turned-pundit Karun Chandhok.

Similarly, Hamilton’s race pace in the triple header was nothing to write home about; while Leclerc grabbed a podium finish in Saudi Arabia, the Briton finished a distant seventh in the sister SF-25, more than 30 seconds behind his teammate.

Hamilton and Leclerc’s qualifying results so far

Hamilton and Leclerc’s race results so far

After the opening five rounds of the season, Hamilton trails Leclerc by 16 points in the championship. Even F1 rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who replaced Hamilton at Mercedes this year, has outscored the seven-time F1 champion so far.

Sky TV’s Chandhok said Hamilton’s results in the early part of the season have not met expectations, as the 40-year-old should have found himself more and more comfortable at Ferrari with every passing race instead of slipping backwards.

“The worry for me is that [the China sprint] is now becoming the outlier,” he said on the Sky F1 podcast.

“On the Sunday of China, Leclerc got ahead of him in the race; despite having a damaged front wing, Leclerc was ahead of him in the race.

“The trend is worrying for me. In Australia, Lewis was 0.16 off Charles, in Japan it became three tenths, in Bahrain it became 0.59s, in Saudi it became over six tenths. The trend is going the wrong way.

“For a driver we were hoping to get more and more accustomed to life at Ferrari, that gap should have been closing down but it's going the wrong way.

“In Saudi, he looked so deflated because at least in Bahrain the race pace wasn't so bad - it wasn't six tenths a lap in the race, it was not that far in the race.

“The problem in Saudi was 31 seconds across 50 laps which is the same six tenths. That's why he looked dejected.”

While Hamilton only struggled in certain types of corners in the season opener in Australia, he has now been haemorrhaging time to Leclerc throughout the lap.

Chandhok believes this must have dealt a major psychological blow to Hamilton, who claimed there is “no fix” for his problems after a tough race in Saudi Arabia.

“In Australia, we were looking at the data and it was only just a couple of corners, Turn 6 and 12 [where he was slow]," said Chandhok.

“We said he is there, in the braking he is there, in the ultra high-speed he is there. ‘It's coming, it’s gonna happen’.

“And now the trend has gone where he is just losing everywhere. As a driver psychologically…. you are looking at the data and going 'Where do I begin?'

“If it's just one type of corner it's easier to focus on. [But] he has to look at the whole spectrum of corners. That is why he is looking so deflated.”