After a tough weekend at the Qatar Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton didn’t hold back. The seven-time world champion, now deep into his first season with Ferrari, described the experience behind the wheel as “a fight like you couldn’t believe.” And based on the results, it’s easy to see why.
Hamilton was eliminated early in both Sprint Qualifying on Friday and standard Qualifying on Saturday. He went on to finish 12th in the Grand Prix - matching his worst result of the season. For a driver who’s stood on at least one podium every year since debuting in 2007, this year has been uncharted territory.
“It definitely has been the most challenging year both in and out of the car,” Hamilton said after the race. “I’ve got so many notes in terms of things we need to improve on.”
That’s not just frustration talking - it’s a seasoned veteran diagnosing a team still trying to find its footing. Hamilton made it clear that the problems are fixable, but only if the team takes action.
“There’s literally no reason why we couldn’t fix those if we just put those into action,” he added. “I’m hopeful for us making progress.”
But that hope is tempered. After the Las Vegas Grand Prix in November, Hamilton admitted he wasn’t exactly looking forward to next season.
That’s despite new regulations on the horizon, which could shake up the competitive order. For now, though, the uphill battle continues.
Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur acknowledged Hamilton’s frustration, calling it a natural reaction in the wake of a difficult race. “This comes 10 minutes after a tough race and I perfectly understand the frustration,” Vasseur said. “When he says he’s ‘not focused on 2026,’ it’s because he’s focused on his own race which was a tough one.”
Vasseur, for his part, sees the emotion as a sign of engagement. “This frustration, we have to take the positive from it.
We take it as a positive reaction. We have to improve, that’s clear.”
One of the key decisions that’s shaped Ferrari’s 2025 campaign was the early halt in car development. Back in April, the team chose to stop bringing aerodynamic upgrades after it became clear McLaren was setting the pace and any title hopes were slipping away. While the drivers were on board with the call, Vasseur now admits he may have underestimated the toll it would take on morale.
“When you still have 20 races to go, or 18 races to go, and you know that you won’t bring any aero development, it’s quite tough to manage psychologically,” he said. “But overall, we continued to push. We brought some mechanical upgrades, and we are trying to do a better job operationally.”
That’s the reality of Formula 1 - even when the car isn’t evolving aerodynamically, the grind doesn’t stop. “This is the DNA of our sport,” Vasseur said.
“We have to accept this. It was a call, and I’m still confident with the call that we made.”
While Hamilton struggled to find any rhythm in Qatar, teammate Charles Leclerc managed to squeeze more performance out of the same machinery. He reached the final sessions of both Sprint and standard Qualifying, then brought the car home in eighth place on Sunday. According to Vasseur, Leclerc had been “pushing like hell” since Friday practice.
Still, the team knows the track layout and conditions in Qatar didn’t do them any favors. “Keep in mind that we have all the same cars as two weeks ago,” Vasseur said. “It means that it’s more related to the track and the conditions than something else [for the lack of pace].”
That’s been a theme for Ferrari this year - inconsistency that often comes down to setup and track-specific performance. “If you compare to São Paulo, when we were in good shape, and this weekend, it’s a matter of setup,” Vasseur explained. “It means that it’s part of the game, part of the life of the team, that sometimes you are struggling a bit more to find the right window.”
And that window is narrow. With the field so tightly packed, being just a few tenths off the pace can mean starting at the back.
“It’s like this from mid-season, and it will be like this also in Abu Dhabi,” Vasseur said. “If we don’t do a good job, it was true for Max in São Paulo - you can be out in Q1 for a setup issue.”
For Ferrari, the challenge now is clear: turn frustration into focus, and notes into action. Hamilton’s not used to being this far from the front, and neither is Ferrari. But with one race left in the season, and a long winter ahead, the work to close the gap starts now.