“Don’t give me too much now”: Hamilton’s search for speed at Ferrari continues

The Bahrain Grand Prix gave Lewis Hamilton cause to believe he will eventually master his new Ferrari, but also demonstrated he still has some way to go.

Hamilton was dejected after qualifying almost six tenths of a second slower than team mate Charles Leclerc. His race began well, with two strong stints on the medium rubber, but he struggled more on the hards later on.

Race engineer Ricardo Adami fed Hamilton constant updates on how to fine-tune his driving to wring the most out of the SF-25. Turn eight, a sharp right-hander which follows a pair of medium-speed corners, remained a persistent problem.

By the end of the race, unable to make progress with persistent understeer on his hard tyres, Hamilton had to ask for a break from the stream of information. But he and the team were clearly pleased with his pace at points earlier in the race. Whether he can use this as a basis for improvement will largely rest on whether he can qualify better, as he admitted afterwards.

Lewis Hamilton’s 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix radio messages

Stint 1: Medium
Stint 2: Medium
Stint 3: Hard
Finish

Stint 1: Medium

Hamilton held his position at the start, then passed Carlos Sainz Jnr for eighth place on lap nine. As those who started ahead of him on soft tyres pitted Hamilton, on mediums, rose to second place behind Leclerc. The pair pitted together at the end of lap 17, at which point they were separated by 10 seconds but producing similar lap times.

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Stint 2: Medium

Hamilton set the fastest lap of the race as he began his second stint on another set of the medium compound tyres. His pace dropped over the following laps as he passed a succession of drivers: Jack Doohan, Max Verstappen, Esteban Ocon and Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

Once in free air his lap times were close to those of race leader Oscar Piastri whose tyres were the same compound, albeit three laps older. However his progress was interrupted when the Safety Car was deployed due to debris.

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Stint 3: Hard

Ferrari switched both their drivers onto the hard tyre compound during the Safety Car period. Hamilton seemed to be briefly confused by the restart procedure at one point, asking Adami whether there would be a rolling restart, which was always going to be the case as the race was not red-flagged.

When the race restarted Hamilton briefly got ahead of Lando Norris, who went off the track re-passing the Ferrari and had to give the position back again. Norris eventually passed Hamilton for good then began to pull away.

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Hamilton was clearly less happy on the hard tyre compound. He suffered more understeer, which amplified the problems he’d had earlier in the race.

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Finish

As the end of the race drew near, Hamilton found he couldn’t extract the last few tenths of a second that Leclerc was getting out of the hards. He asked Adami to give him fewer updates on where he was losing time.

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2025 Bahrain Grand Prix

• Russell’s transponder was ‘frazzled and charred’ after Bahrain Grand Prix DRS drama
• “Don’t give me too much now”: Hamilton’s search for speed at Ferrari continues
• “What the hell have you done?” Leclerc shocked by his DRS opening at turn 12
• McLaren makes best start to a season since before its drivers were born
• Norris feels “nowhere near the capability I have” in McLaren’s 2025 car

Browse all 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix articles