Lewis Hamilton makes worrying “no fix” claim following “painful” F1 Saudi Arabian GP

Lewis Hamilton has predicted that the remainder of the 2025 F1 season with Ferrari will be “painful” following a disappointing Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Hamilton finished in seventh place at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, over 30 seconds behind Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc.

The seven-time world champion was well off the pace all weekend, qualifying 0.6s behind Leclerc on Saturday.

This weekend was reminiscent of his final year at Mercedes, with Hamilton incredibly downbeat when speaking to the media after the race.

Looking ahead to Miami and the rest of the season, Hamilton has no confidence that things will improve.

“I think I’ll struggle also in Miami,” Hamilton said, as quoted by Motorsport Week. “I don’t know how much longer I’ll struggle for, but it’s definitely painful.”

“At the moment there’s no fix. So, this is how it’s going to be for the rest of the year. It’s going to be painful.”

Hamilton was once again completely out-classed by Leclerc, who scored Ferrari’s first podium of the year.

Hamilton admitted that while their car setups are slightly different, he’s simply going slower through the corners than Leclerc.

“He’s been driving this car for a long time, so he definitely knows it really well. There’s plenty in the data, for sure,” Hamilton explained.

“I mean, honestly, like, it doesn’t look massively different in the data. Just… I go slower through the corners. We do have slightly different setups, I have to look and see whether that setup is the way the car likes to be.

“Yeah, him and his side are definitely obviously doing a better job.”

Lewis Hamilton “tried everything” to go quicker

Hamilton was mystified by his lack of pace in the race, revealing that he “tried everything” to go quicker.

Unlike in other races, such as Bahrain, where he showed solid race pace, Hamilton’s Sunday performance was also nowhere.

“Nothing positive from today,” Hamilton said. “Except for Charles finishing on the podium, which is great for the team. It was horrible. It was horrible. Not enjoyable at all. I was just sliding around.

“First stint, massive understeer, car not turning. And then massive deg. And then the second stint, slightly better balance, but still just no pace. Yeah, pretty bad.”

He added: “Struggling to feel the car underneath me. But there’s no particular thing. There’s nothing to say ‘hey, this is the issue’.

“In qualifying it’s me extracting performance. In the race today, I tried everything, and the car just didn’t want to go quicker.”