The initial excitement surrounding Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari in Formula 1 has seemingly faded after a challenging qualifying session in Bahrain.
While his start with the Scuderia included a promising (sprint) pole and race victory early on, the difficulties in Melbourne and the disqualifications in China were weathered with Hamilton maintaining a positive outlook. However, the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend has presented a stark contrast, amplifying concerns that first emerged in Suzuka regarding a perceived performance gap to teammate Charles Leclerc.
In Bahrain, Hamilton openly admitted he is “just not doing the job” after qualifying a distant ninth, a significant seven places behind Leclerc. This marks the second consecutive race weekend where Hamilton has been the slower Ferrari driver, with the deficit in Bahrain being more substantial than the three-tenths and three grid slots that separated them in Suzuka.
Hamilton had his first flying lap in Q3 deleted and ultimately finished nearly six-tenths of a second behind Leclerc after his final attempt. His despondent reaction on the return to the pits was evident, repeatedly shaking his head as race engineer Riccardo Adami relayed the gap to the frontrunners.
When questioned about his apology, Hamilton told Sky Sports F1, “Just about my performance. My poor performance. There are no reasons. I’m just not doing the job.”
The current dynamic at Ferrari presents a clear contrast. While Hamilton is visibly perplexed by his lack of pace, Leclerc is encouraged by the progress being made on his side of the garage, despite what has been a challenging start to the season for the team overall.
“It was really good, but I don’t think today’s performance relies on my record on this track. I think it’s the result of a lot of work,” Leclerc explained regarding his strong Q3 lap.
“At the beginning of the season, we obviously weren’t where we wanted to be and since two or three races, I’ve gone in an interesting direction set-up-wise, which seems to help me to extract a bit more out of the car. That’s what I’m trying to do every weekend. For now, it seems to be better and better, which is a good sign for the future. I’m happy with the lap. It was very tricky to put everything together, but I think I did so. There wasn’t much more inside the car. I did not expect to be so close to pole position – just like him. But tomorrow is going to be a bit more of a challenge.”
Leclerc, who will now start on the front row due to George Russell’s grid penalty, anticipates a challenge from the McLarens in the race due to their “extremely good” tyre management. However, he expects to be “pretty close” with the Mercedes and Red Bulls.
He also believes the new floor Ferrari introduced has already made a positive impact, gaining him a position in qualifying. “I’m curious to see what it will do tomorrow,” Leclerc added. “However, it’s probably not the best track to extract the maximum out of this new upgrade, but in the next few weekends, we shall see more of it.”