Martin Brundle has noted how Lewis Hamilton’s post-race interviews are a “very hard watch” at the moment given his early-season F1 struggles at Ferrari.
The seven-time world champion, who moved to Ferrari in a mega £50m-a-year move in the off-season after 12 years and six titles at Mercedes, has not finished higher than fifth in five races so far in 2025, though he did win the sprint race in China.
Hamilton, 40, finished Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix where he started, in seventh. After the race, he was in a despondent mood, almost lost for words in a TV interview with Sky Sports F1 and later telling sections of the print media that the rest of the year is “going to be painful.”
However, Sky F1 pundit Brundle, who commentated on the race in Jeddah, believes the British driver does still have pace to burn.
“Hamilton would finish half a minute behind his team-mate Leclerc in seventh, albeit showing strong pace from time to time,” he said, in his Sky F1 column.
“The pace is in there somewhere but it's a very hard watch when Lewis is doing post-race interviews at the moment.
“He's not happy with his performances and is clearly more than a little perplexed and disappointed.”
Hamilton insisted there was “nothing positive to take” fromt the Saudi race, “apart from Charles [Leclerc] on the podium, which is great for the team.”
He added: "It was horrible, not enjoyable at all. I was just sliding around. It's pretty bad.
"I don't know how much longer I'll struggle for but it's definitely painful. Just going to try and improve from week to week."
"At the moment there is no fix so this is how it's going to be for the rest or the year. It's going to be painful.
"In qualifying it's me extracting performance and in the race I tried everything and the car just didn't want to go any quicker."
Brundle opined, after the race in Jeddah, that he doesn’t “buy into” Hamilton’s continuous struggles with the SF-25 Ferrari car.
“I struggle to buy into that he doesn’t understand the car, we’re knocking on the door with May,” Brundle said.
“Lewis hasn’t gelled with this car, Lewis likes a car in a certain way. It’s difficult days, what’s a bit odd is all of a sudden he was right there [at the end of the race].
“It took Ollie Bearman a day here [last year], he wasn’t relearning a car.
“Antonelli has got used to working with Bono [at Mercedes]. I struggle to buy into that, honestly. We know Lewis is better and faster than that, something is not working and something is not gelling.”
Hamilton is seventh in the drivers’ standings after five races and trails championship leader Oscar Piastri by 68 points heading into the next race in Miami (2-4 May).
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