Lewis Hamilton’s woes continued in qualifying for the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix and they are taking their toll on him. In an interview with F1 TV, he showed clear emotions when he was asked what message he wanted to give his millions of fans after another 18th place on the grid and exit from Q1.
The question is followed by a long silence with shaking of the head, while tears well up in the 40-year-old’s eyes. “I don’t have a real message at the moment. I’m sorry. But I’m eternally grateful for the support I’ve received throughout the year. Without it I wouldn’t have made it through this season.”
Hamilton is aware that his results can have a negative impact on team morale: “I’m sure the results play a role – for the mechanics, the engineers, everyone who is here every weekend and of course for the people in the factory. Everyone is doing their best.”
“And the negative reporting in the media affects people. They come home to their wives and they say: ‘People are reading a lot of negative things about your work.’ I’m sure it’s hard – for the children, the families, for many people. This has a noticeable impact.”
Hamilton: “I lost everything in the last attempt”
After a lackluster drive out of the pit lane with no chance of overtaking on the hostile Lusail International Circuit in 17th place in the sprint, Hamilton went into qualifying with the faint hope of making it further this time than in the sprint qualifying. Because Ferrari had improved the car overnight.
And at first it didn’t look so bad, in fact Hamilton was even slightly faster than Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc at one point. “That actually looked pretty good, but then I lost everything in the last attempt,” confirms Hamilton.
Did Hamilton take too few risks?
While Leclerc improved by half a second, Hamilton only managed eleven thousandths of a second. A direct comparison with Leclerc shows that he lost time for the first time in turn 4. Hamilton had understeer in the right-hand bend and therefore lost one and a half tenths of a second to Leclerc.
However, he managed to make up the gap with a clean drive through Turn 7 and was almost level with Leclerc by Turn 10. But Leclerc comes out of the corner, which is gaining a certain level of notoriety this weekend for numerous track limit violations at the entrance, better than Hamilton.
There is no real mistake on the part of the seven-time world champion, but he apparently took too few risks out of concern about the track limits. Leclerc took a much larger swing and therefore came around Turn 10 at a more favorable angle.
No stability, no speed
As the lap progresses, Hamilton loses another tenth to Leclerc in the ultra-fast corners 14 and 15, where he only lifts briefly. In turn 14, Hamilton takes his foot off the accelerator later, but more clearly. According to F1 Tempo, Leclerc’s accelerator minimum is 78 percent, Hamilton’s is 74. This makes Leclerc six km/h faster.
In the subsequent left-hand bend, Turn 15, he lifts at the same time as Leclerc, but much more clearly: Hamilton reduces the accelerator pedal to 46 percent, Leclerc’s minimum is 50 percent. Hamilton loses ten km/h to Leclerc. Overall, the Monegasque gains 0.15 seconds in these two corners alone. So there were four corners that didn’t work perfectly for Hamilton.
So what is Hamilton missing to get the best out of the Ferrari SF-25? “Stability. Maybe it’s the difficult balance at the absolute limit. We clearly lack downforce compared to the others.”
No more Aero updates since April
He confirmed on Sky that the car was better than on Friday: “The car felt significantly better. To be honest, it was better than the rest of the weekend. Unfortunately, that wasn’t reflected in the times.”
Leclerc, who fought his way into Q3 after a spectacular spin in Q2 but couldn’t get past tenth place, confirms: “I share Lewis’ impression. The car actually feels okay, not dramatically far off the pace. But if you look at the times, it’s clear: That’s because of the current vehicle. At the moment we’re simply not where we want to be.”
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Leclerc says he “reset everything in the sprint and tried to do something special. That didn’t work. I hope things go better tomorrow – but nothing about what I’ve felt in the car so far makes me think I’ll feel better tomorrow.”
This could be due to the lack of Aero updates. Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur admitted on Friday that Ferrari had already shifted all resources to the 2026 car in April after the Chinese Grand Prix.
But Hamilton doesn’t believe that’s the reason for the current misery: “The lack of updates wasn’t the problem. I wanted them to focus early on the car for next year – and make sure that we start early.”
He also rules out starting from the pit lane again like in a sprint: “I don’t know. Probably not. We saw in the sprint that there are hardly any opportunities to overtake. Maybe I’ll try something different – but we’ll see.”