Lewis Hamilton’s “biggest problem” at Ferrari identified by Guenther Steiner

Ex-Haas F1 team principal Guenther Steiner believes the expectations around Lewis Hamilton’s switch to Ferrari are their “biggest problem.”

The Hamilton-Ferrari partnership hasn’t lived up to expectations in F1 2025.

On Ferrari’s side, the SF-25 has underdelivered.

The performance of the car has been marred by various issues, including an inability to run at optimum ride height.

Hamilton has struggled to get to grips with the new car, failing to finish on the podium in his first 17 races with the team.

While Hamilton has made some progress in recent rounds, this year has largely been a disappointment.

The only high point for Hamilton was his sprint race triumph at the Chinese Grand Prix back in April.

However, that took place on a weekend where both Ferrari cars were disqualified due to excessive plank wear.

Hamilton’s “biggest problem”

Lewis Hamilton’s switch to Ferrari over the winter resulted in an unprecedented amount of hype.

Naturally, given F1’s most successful driver was joining forces with the sport’s winningest team.

Ferrari finished last year with the second-fastest car behind McLaren, narrowly missing out on the constructors’ title by 14 points.

In a bid to overhaul McLaren, Ferrari made radical changes to their car for this season, but that gamble hasn’t paid off.

Ferrari have struggled to consistently extract the most from their car, with their Baku performance showing proof of that.

Hamilton looked as if he had the pace to contend for a top three in qualifying, but he was knocked out in Q2 after Ferrari didn’t put him on a fresh set of tyres for the final runs of the session.

Speaking to the Inside Line Podcast, Steiner blamed the hype around Hamilton' switch for creating unrealistic expectations. 

“I think the biggest problem there is the expectations which were set last year when it was announced. The expectation was Lewis is coming back to win his eighth world championship [at] Ferrari,” he said.

“Because at the time, when it was announced, Ferrari was very strong, the second half of last year’s season.

“This dream, everybody believed [in it], me included. It’s like, this is too good. Then obviously this year, reality set in, and guess what, we are all disappointed.”