"Car is just different every time," claims Hamilton as he opens up on Ferrari's car issues
On the back of a contrasting day in Miami, Ferrari's seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton insists that the Scuderia has been struggling with its car to extract everything from the car which has been prone to inconsistency.
Lewis Hamilton had a contrasting day on Saturday in Miami. The seven-time F1 champion started the 18-lap sprint from P6 on the grid, and became the only driver to represent Ferrari after his team-mate Charles Leclerc crashed into the walls on his first sighting lap.
The Briton struggled for pace on the intermediate tyres, but pitted exactly at the perfect time, and jumped up to third place to record his second podium finish with the Scuderia.
However, the Briton struggled for grip in qualifying, and suffered an early exit in Q2 which means that he will only line up in P12 at Sunday's Miami Grand Prix.
Reflecting on his day, Hamilton said: "Today was definitely an eventful one. We put in a strong performance in the Sprint, which was a great result given the challenging weather and our starting position. I suggested the switch to softs, and the team executed a fantastic pit stop, that really made the difference.
"Qualifying was more difficult; we lacked grip and overall pace, and P12 isn’t where we want to be. But we’ll go through everything overnight and look at how we can optimise the strategy to fight back tomorrow."
“[It was a] difficult session. Mixed emotions. It was a good, decent result [in the sprint race], but it was not pure pace. It was a good call in the strategy, but in pure pace we didn't have it.
“I was one of the first here this morning to make sure we took the right steps through the day and [it] didn't make any difference. The car is just different every time you go out.”
Ferrari's SF25 has been very inconsistent so far in 2025. The car is very sensitive to small changes of conditions. This inconsistency could be already seen during pre-season testing in Bahrain where Hamilton and Leclerc were unable to keep the same line in the same corner on consecutive laps.
Unfortunately for the Scuderia, this issue looks persistent, and Ferrari appears to be unable to maintain a consistent performance level in different conditions and on different circuits.
The seven-time F1 champion confirmed this issue, and has also revealed that while he was the first driver to arrive in the Miami paddock in order to review the car's setup, he refused to make lots of tweaks to his SF25 as previous races saw the Scuderia make its car worse with sudden setup overhauls.
“We’ll keep trying, we’re only six races in, but we’re struggling big time. We’re trying our hardest not to make big set-up changes, but no matter what we do, it’s so inconsistent every time we go out.
“We're outqualified by the Williams so they're doing a great job. But pure pace... That's where we are. Charles was fortunate to get through with a new tyre, so I just got in through it. If I had an extra new tyre we should have used it.
“The sprint race was better than qualifying but as I said we are where we are. We need some upgrades, we need some improvements, we need lots of things that need to be better.
“I've tried everything. We're trying everything. The smallest bit of time and I was out. If we had gone out with a new tyre I probably would have been in Q3. Then it would just be eighth or ninth with Charles. It doesn't make a huge difference, but the fact is we are trying, and we don't have the pace.”
As for the race which could take place in wet conditions, Hamilton said: “The car was not good in the wet. I don't know if it will be tomorrow either. We'll see. I'll do a lot of praying tonight. There's opportunity for sure. If it started dry and then went wet or something like that, it could be kind of neat. You've got to be lucky as well.”
