Ferrari accused of “brand decision” to sign Lewis Hamilton as new flaws noticed

Lewis Hamilton was signed as a “brand decision” by Ferrari and Carlos Sainz would be doing a better job in their car, it has been boldly claimed.

Hamilton enters this weekend’s F1 Bahrain Grand Prix, the fourth round of the 2025 season, needing to tackle the problems with his Ferrari that he has faced so far.

While Lewis Hamilton won the sprint race in China, it was a brief highlight in an otherwise worrying start to his Ferrari adventure, with the famous red cars routinely off the pace of McLaren and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

“Whether you are disappointed or not with Lewis’ performances at Ferrari, it depends on your expectations,” F1 analyst Peter Windsor said.

“For my part, I said that if there was a championship-winning car at Ferrari, it would Charles Leclerc who would win the championship, but Hamilton would win races.

“But we don’t have a championship-winning car at Ferrari. Leclerc is still getting more out of the car, but Lewis is capable of winning a grand prix if things go right.

“I am not disappointed by that. That’s exactly where I thought it would be.

“The only thing that has surprised me is that Lewis hasn’t yet softened his driving to the point of being who he is, as he was at McLaren and Mercedes. He is still braking too much in a straight line, he is still taking relatively wide entries.

“If I was Fred Vasseur I’d say ‘why are you doing that? Be yourself, relax, be the guy you were in Formula 3 with early turning, incredible feel for the rotation point of the car, where has it gone?’

“I am not sure Fred would say that. I don’t know why he hired him.

“I am guessing he hired him because it was a good brand decision, I guess.

“If Carlos Sainz was in that car, he’d be doing at least as good a job as Lewis, if not better. He’d probably have done a better job at Suzuka.”

Lewis Hamilton ‘thinks about everything more’

Age has been cited by Windsor as a factor for the seven-time Formula 1 champion’s decline.

“Lewis is 40 years old,” he said. “Because of that, he thinks about everything more. He is impervious to what the press says, he’s been around long enough not to listen to what anyone says. That’s not an issue at Ferrari.

“But he thinks about things more, as you do when you get older.

“If you’re 21, you just do it on gut instinct. That’s the difference now with Lewis. He’s at an age where he’s gone to Ferrari and he’s thinking about things more.”

The key problem at Ferrari is their inability to run their cars low enough. Hamilton hinted that his car was more impacted than Leclerc’s, and he is awaiting a fix.

Italian media reported that Ferrari will bring something to Bahrain to address Hamilton’s problem.

But Windsor said: “I cannot imagine in a million years that if Charles is running a lower ride-height, and Lewis says to his engineers ‘I want the same as Charles’, his engineers are saying ‘no’.

“I can't imagine that would be happening so I don’t understand.

“The instability in the rear? Yes, it’s not great, but does he think Charles doesn’t have instability? It’s an unstable car when you take downforce out.

“Is the rear end of the Red Bull glued to the road? Talk to Yuki Tsunoda or Liam Lawson.

“Lewis has driven a difficult car for so long now that he’s possibly shocked the Ferrari is not better than the Mercedes. Indeed, it is worse than the Mercedes if he can’t catch Antonelli.”