Hamilton doesn’t “have a lot of answers” to Bahrain GP qualifying deficit

Lewis Hamilton cut a hangdog figure after qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix – possibly the most downcast he has looked since qualifying nearly half a second off George Russell, then his team-mate, in Qatar last year.

In Bahrain Hamilton toiled to ninth on the grid, 0.931s slower than Oscar Piastri’s pole position time and nearly six tenths adrift of his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc, who initially qualified third before Russell’s penalty promoted him to second.

“It was pretty straightforward – not much to say,” he told reporters post-qualifying. “I’m just not doing a good enough job on my side so I’ve just got to keep improving – I’m working on it.”

Hamilton had outpaced Leclerc in Q1 with a lap set just before the chequered flag, but in Q2 the order was reversed as Hamilton failed to improve on his first push lap and Leclerc’s second flier was 0.285s faster.

It was in Q3 where the margin really opened up. Hamilton lost his first flying lap to a track-limits infringement after his Ferrari washed wide over the exit kerbs at Turn 13.

While his second and final push lap of 1m30.772s was initially good for fifth, he was subsequently leapfrogged by Leclerc, Pierre Gasly, Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz.

“Clearly the car is a lot better than I’m delivering with it,” he told F1TV. “And Charles did a great job with it today, so big apologies to the team for not doing the job.”

In Japan last weekend Hamilton set tongues wagging by suggesting his car had a “deficit” to his team-mate’s and that “on my side, something is not performing”. He was not specific about what this was, though the belief is that he was alluding to his preference to run his cars lower and stiffer than the SF-25 could go.

It’s understood this issue has been militated by Ferrari’s major floor upgrade this weekend, which included a new ‘throat’ profile as well as revised end fences. Hamilton has certainly ceased suggesting that car rather than driver is to blame.

Nevertheless, Leclerc seems to be able to extract more performance from the SF-25, gravitating towards a set-up which requires a specific driving style but which delivers rewards.

“I’ve gone into a quite extreme direction in the past few weekends in terms of setup,” said Leclerc after qualifying.

“It fits my driving style but also makes it quite – well, very tricky to drive. But it seems that I’m able to extract a bit more out of the car going in that direction so I’ll keep going.

“Race after race it seems to be better and better so that’s a positive sign for the future. But it makes it very difficult at some parts of qualifying – especially on used tyres it was just all over the place. It was very difficult to put everything together.”

The challenge for Hamilton now is that the team’s priorities will naturally coalesce around the driver who is getting the most performance out of the car as it is, since development must soon pivot towards the 2026 project. He needs to feel his way towards a means of making the SF-25 work for him – even he seems unsure of how to do that.

“I really don’t know,” he said. “I don’t have a lot of answers for you guys.”