Lewis Hamilton completely changed his mind about Ferrari in just 24 hours at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton made little impression at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix last weekend. Since winning the Sprint in China, his confidence has slowly evaporated.

Hamilton’s results were hardly disastrous – seventh in qualifying, seventh at the chequered flag. But he didn’t come close to extracting the full potential of the Ferrari.

Leclerc outpaced Hamilton by half a second on Saturday. Embarrassingly, debutant Oliver Bearman managed to get closer to the Monegasque at the same event in 2024.

Having passed Carlos Sainz at the start, Hamilton mounted a strong defence against Lando Norris for a couple of laps but eventually had to concede defeat. He couldn’t catch Kimi Antonelli and finished more than 30 seconds behind his teammate.

Leclerc scored Ferrari’s first podium of the season with an impressive drive. He’s now 16 points ahead of Hamilton in the championship, having contributed more than 60% of the team’s total.

Lewis Hamilton seemed to lose all hope between Saudi Arabian Grand Prix qualifying and the race

Despite the alarming margin to Leclerc, Hamilton sounded reasonably hopeful after qualifying. Speaking to Sky Sports, he insisted that he wouldn’t ‘give up’ in the midst of a ‘really difficult’ situation.

He declared that ‘where there’s a will there’s a way’ and vowed to ‘keep pushing [and] keep trying’. The ‘amazing support’ of the team would help him reach his goal.

But after a Saudi Arabian Grand Prix where he complained about having no grip over the radio, he completely changed his mind. In an interview with the same publication, Hamilton said there was ‘no fix’ for his problems.

As a result, he was ready to write off the remainder of 2025, telling his fans it would be ‘painful’. It’s worth stressing that emotions are heightened immediately after getting out of the car, and he may be more measured in his assessment before Miami.

But for now, it seems as if he’s lost all hope of a breakthrough in the SF-25 before the major regulation changes this winter.

The big reason Mercedes are better off without Lewis Hamilton

There are still 19 races remaining in 2025, and not long ago, that was the typical length of an entire season. Hamilton also has a fortnight break after the triple-header to review where he’s going wrong.

But at a certain point, speed should come naturally. Even Sainz, who initially struggled for Williams, has found form at the last two events.

Hamilton’s work ethic can’t be questioned – he stayed late at night in Jeddah for a post-mortem with his engineers. But that may not offset his apparent discomfort in this generation of cars.

Former F1 designer Gary Anderson believes Mercedes are better off now that Hamilton has left. He says the team have stopped pursuing radical experiments at the behest of the legendary driver, which has brought a newfound stability.