Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari had a relatively understated weekend in Japan, both in terms of performance and end result. The SF-25 is arguably the fourth-fastest car to start 2025, a long way short of pre-season expectations.
In terms of the inter-team rivalry between Hamilton and Leclerc, it is the Monegasque who is ahead in the standings.
Both drivers have made similar comments about Ferrari’s 2025 challenger, which is proving tricky to optimise.
Speaking to the media in Japan, however, Hamilton reveals there is another issue he’s dealt with since round one.
Hamilton reveals problem with his SF-25
Somewhat surprisingly, the blockbuster partnership between Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari hasn’t dominated headlines in 2025.
With Ferrari evenly matched with McLaren last year, the expectation was that Leclerc and the 7-time Champion could fight for the title.
Unfortunately for Fred Vasseur’s team, their latest challenger is lacking relative to the papaya squad.
The Ferrari team principal has admitted their deficit is around three tenths, which they will have to claw back.
To make matters worse, Hamilton says there’s been an issue with one of his components this season:
“I think I did the best I could today,” he told Sky Sports.
“I’m generally lacking performance to all the cars that are ahead of me.
“Particularly, Mercedes, McLaren and obviously the Red Bull.
“We’ve found something on the car that’s been underperforming for the last three races.
“So I’m really hoping when that’s fixed, I’ll start getting a bit better results.
“But yeah I’m losing just over a tenth per lap, with this issue we have.”
Ferrari reliant on upgrade package
The good news for Ferrari is that one effective set of updates could transform their season.
As Red Bull and Max Verstappen have demonstrated for several months, McLaren can be forced into errors when put under pressure.
Should the Italian outfit unlock a few tenths per lap, they could put themselves in contention for victories.
Then again, it must be said that Ferrari have fallen short of targets during the winter break.
Whilst making a recovery is possible, the incoming 2026 regulations mean the window of opportunity is smaller than most years.
A new floor will debut on the SF-25 this weekend, which will be crucial for their fortunes this season.
Not only will their next upgrades matter in terms of performance, but it will also demonstrate whether their long-term trajectory for 2025 is promising or not.
Returning to Lewis Hamilton, he is hopeful Ferrari can rectify the problem on his car:
“I’m hoping in the next races it’s fixed [the underperforming component].
“Otherwise, qualifying clearly is really important. I’m not extracting the best of the tyres, so that’s something to work on.
“I think it’s just they [Ferrari] are aware of it [the issue], but they don’t know why.
“As I said, when the new component comes, hopefully it will be gone and it will be the same across cars.
“Considering that, I’m relatively happy with the race pace I did have – given what I had.
“But otherwise, good performance from the team. Myself and Riccardo [Adami, race engineer] I think did a really good job.
“The engineers and mechanics did a really good job – so onwards and upwards.”
