Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari struggles show no signs of letting up with every race that goes by after another difficult weekend at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The Brit technically finished seventh on the road, behind the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg after struggling for pace in his Ferrari. Teammate Charles Leclerc managed to finish the Spanish Grand Prix on the podium, despite being outqualified by the seven-time champion on Saturday.
The result has little bearing on the drivers’ championship for Hamilton, who remains a distant sixth, 23 points behind Leclerc and 23 ahead of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli. With 15 Formula 1 races to go this season, there’s time for improvement, but attention will almost certainly turn to the 2026 F1 regulations soon.
Lewis Hamilton will be devastated by Leclerc’s ‘new’ Ferrari issue after encountering limitations during the final stint of the race, which he hadn’t experienced before. In fact, Leclerc’s unheard radio will be painful for Hamilton as well, after he admitted that he sacrifices his Saturday to have more pace on a Sunday.
Ferrari put Hamilton in a ‘horrible’ situation by forcing him to let his teammate past en route to scoring a podium. His Scuderia experience hasn’t been what he dreamed it might be so far, and there remains a lot of work to be done.
Perhaps, as he approaches the age of 40, he’s realising that he has given himself too much of a mountain to climb. Next year’s regulations may be his only saviour, as he looks to chase a record eighth title.
He wasn’t in too much of an optimistic mood after the race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, which says a lot about what his state of mind might be for the future.
“I can’t take anything positive from sixth place,” he said, according to SPEEDWEEK. “I was struggling with a slipping rear end. I have no idea why it went so badly. In terms of car balance, that was the worst race this year.
When asked what he would like to do next, he simply replied, “Home.”
Could going ‘home’ be a sign that he is already fed up of being at the bottom end of the top 10, or is it just mental fatigue from being in that sort of area for the last four seasons?
Hamilton should demand a drastic Ferrari change if he wants to see immediate improvements, according to Juan Pablo Montoya, but it would be a lot of work to change race engineers again. Focusing on the car may be the better port of call.
Speaking to the British media, he iterated that Spain was his worst race yet and that he cannot explain his continued struggles.
Hamilton lacks confidence in his Ferrari car changes, and it seems that his bold winter switch from Mercedes may not have paid off. For the majority of the season, they have looked quicker than he has on track.
Hamilton and Leclerc were ‘tough’ to interview in Spain, which shows that their struggles aren’t just affecting the seven-time champion. His Monegasque partner has been with the team through many ups and downs over the last six years and is feeling the effects of the current situation too.
For now, their best solution is to work together to find a solution for the rest of this year and try their best to nail the new regulations for 2026. Changing car concept over the winter hasn’t worked and was sadly a gamble which they may regret.
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