Lewis Hamilton told his speed ‘isn’t the big issue anymore’ at Ferrari

Ralf Schumacher believes Lewis Hamilton’s outright pace is no longer his biggest weakness at Ferrari after making notable progress in recent rounds.

Hamilton has endured a difficult first season at Ferrari.

The seven-time world champion has yet to finish on the podium since joining Ferrari.

While Ferrari haven’t lived up to expectations with the SF-25, limited by a number of key issues, Hamilton has been dominated by teammate Charles Leclerc.

Hamilton’s confidence took a major knock before the summer break with two difficult races.

However, since coming back from the shutdown, Hamilton’s inherent raw speed has been evident.

He looked to be a close match to Leclerc’s pace up until his crash in the Dutch Grand Prix.

Similarly, at Monza, Hamilton recovered from his grid penalty to finish solidly in the top six.

Speaking to T-Online, Schumacher believes Hamilton’s biggest problem is his consistency, not his speed.

“At least speed isn’t a big issue anymore. Lewis was relatively close to the front at Zandvoort and Monza. Consistency is the issue. And for him to spin twice at Zandvoort, shoot the car into the tyres, and then get a penalty for entering the pit lane too fast? With his experience, that shouldn’t happen to him.

“As a team boss, I’d have less sympathy for that… I really hope this is just a lapse in concentration. But if these things happen to him because he’s already pushing the car to the limit, that wouldn’t be a good sign.”

Hamilton’s struggles “over such a long period”

Given Lewis Hamilton’s track record in F1, his adaptation period has taken longer than expected.

Hamilton’s best weekend of the year came in Shanghai, where he won the sprint from pole.

Since then, Ferrari have been limited by how they’ve been forced to set up their car due to a limitation with their suspension.

It’s thought that, combined with a change in brake material - Ferrari have a different supplier to Mercedes - this has contributed to Hamilton’s struggles.

“I’m a bit surprised by how the season has gone,” Schumacher added. “I had said before the start of this year that things wouldn’t be easy for him at Ferrari.

“Charles Leclerc is a strong driver as a teammate and, from the very beginning, I considered the idea of Hamilton challenging for the title in his first year to be very bold, if not impossible. After all, he hadn’t had any testing and had to adapt to a different car.

“But I didn’t expect him to struggle so much over such a long period. You have to consider he earns a lot of money there and came with the expectation of being a top performer. And so far, that hasn’t worked out at all.”