“Overthinking” theory put forward for Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari woes

Former IndyCar driver Danica Patrick believes Lewis Hamilton’s struggles at Ferrari could be down to “overthinking”.

Hamilton has struggled to get up to speed since moving from Mercedes to Ferrari for the 2025 F1 season.

The last race in Saudi Arabia was Hamilton’s weakest of the season so far, finishing over 30 seconds behind teammate Charles Leclerc, who secured Ferrari’s first podium of 2025.

After the race, a dejected Hamilton said there was no quick fix and that it could take him a long time to adapt to the Ferrari.

Speaking ahead of FP1 in Miami, Patrick weighed in on Hamilton’s difficult start at Ferrari.

“What’s up with Lewis? I don’t know, but all I can say is that he’s with a new team, and it always takes time to transition into a new team.

“The baked-in handling of the car, the methods in which they go about doing things, all of this stuff takes time to learn and get familiar with. These weekends happen so fast.

“You have to be so on it, especially in a sprint weekend, which is really saying something as he proved making no changes on the sprint weekend proved to be good, so maybe they overthink things, possibly.

“That’s very easy to do in racing. Overthinking things can happen.”

Hamilton not “gelling” with Ferrari

Hamilton has managed to show flashes of brilliance during his Ferrari stint.

He took pole and won the China sprint race, while his race pace in Bahrain was also impressive, carving his way through the pack to finish fifth.

However, he’s often lagged a couple of tenths behind Leclerc.

Brundle feels it’s a case of the Ferrari not suiting Hamilton’s driving style.

“I think quite clearly the car’s not set up well for Lewis’ driving style,” Brundle said.

“When we saw in Saudi Arabia Lando caught him and we saw on the onboard camera… I mean the Ferrari was all over the place. Lewis was really struggling there.

“Lewis statistically is the greatest of all time and in many people’s eyes he is the GOAT. We’ve seen him races where if he was in a wheelie bin he would have still won the race.

“He’s got the speed, he’s got the talent but somehow or another it’s not gelling there. Quite clearly, whichever way he’s trying to take that car doesn’t suit him.”