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Ex-Ferrari Engineer Sheds Light on Lewis Hamilton’s Struggles in 2025 F1 Season
Lewis Hamilton’s much-anticipated debut season with Ferrari has not gone as expected, with underwhelming performances sparking questions about his ability to adapt to the team’s 2025 challenger, the SF-25. Despite the hype surrounding his switch from Mercedes to the iconic Italian team, Hamilton has consistently been outpaced by teammate Charles Leclerc and has shown visible signs of frustration throughout the early rounds of the season.
Former Ferrari race engineer Rob Smedley, who famously worked alongside Felipe Massa during his tenure at the Scuderia, recently offered a technical perspective on Hamilton’s current issues. Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, Smedley pointed to a mismatch between Hamilton’s driving style and the behavior of the SF-25 as a major reason behind the Briton’s disappointing form.
Smedley explained that the Ferrari car is not particularly forgiving, especially in medium-to-high speed corners where stability is crucial. “The car is not that easy to drive. It doesn’t really suit Lewis’ driving style,” Smedley noted. “Charles [Leclerc] can extract more performance from it over a single timed lap. But Lewis needs a stable rear-end to perform at his best.”
The seven-time World Champion has long relied on rear-end stability to push his cars to the limit. Smedley emphasized that when a car is “tail-happy,” or prone to oversteering during cornering, Hamilton tends to struggle. “That’s just the way he drives. If he can’t rely on the rear of the car, he can’t extract maximum performance,” Smedley added.
After a particularly difficult race in Jeddah earlier this season, Hamilton admitted that there seemed to be “no fix in sight” for his problems. Smedley echoed that sentiment, suggesting there is no quick solution to Ferrari’s performance woes. “It’s not just one thing that needs to be fixed. It’s not like they’re going to find a silver bullet,” he said. “There’s just a general lack of performance, and it comes down to fine margins – tenths of a second.”
Smedley believes that if Ferrari can find even two or three tenths in both qualifying and race pace, it could significantly improve their competitiveness. However, such improvements will require consistent, detailed work across all areas of the team.
The Miami Grand Prix served as yet another low point for Ferrari, highlighting both the car’s lack of pace and ongoing strategic issues. At one point, the team even found themselves being challenged by Williams, a worrying sign given the pecking order expectations at the start of the season. On top of that, internal confusion was evident as Ferrari became entangled in a controversial team orders situation involving Hamilton and Leclerc, further compounding the weekend’s disappointments.
As Ferrari continues to search for performance and harmony within the team, all eyes remain on Hamilton to see whether he can adapt to his new machinery or if 2025 will go down as a rare off-year for the F1 legend.
