What Naomi Schiff has now heard about Lewis Hamilton’s ‘optimum set-up’ should really concern Ferrari fans

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Lewis Hamilton secured his best Grand Prix result of the season at the Bahrain Grand Prix, coming home just a few seconds behind teammate Charles Leclerc.

Ferrari earned their biggest points haul of the campaign with Lewis Hamilton finishing fifth and Charles Leclerc narrowly missing out on a podium finish ahead of him.

Leclerc battled hard with Lando Norris to try and cling onto third, but the superior pace of the McLaren meant he eventually had to yield to the championship leader.

It means that Hamilton’s Sprint Race victory in China is still the best result of the season for the team, even if both drivers were disqualified from Sunday’s Grand Prix the next day.

The Bahrain Grand Prix was far from perfect for the seven-time world champion, as he struggled in practice and was well off the pace of his teammate in qualifying.

Luca di Montezemolo has changed his mind on Hamilton’s move after what he’s seen from the start of the season, and Naomi Schiff isn’t sure that Ferrari are maximising the potential of their new driver.

READ MORE: Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton’s life outside F1 from net worth to family

Ferrari not able to run Lewis Hamilton’s ‘optimum set-up’ this season

Schiff was covering the race in Bahrain for Sky Sports F1 (13/4 6:37 pm) and analysing how Hamilton ended up finishing the race in fifth.

She said, “It’s been a tricky start for Lewis at Ferrari. Yesterday, he was particularly down, I mean, even coming into this weekend, it felt like energies were really low.

“From our understanding, we heard that the car’s not been…they’ve not been able to run the car essentially in the optimum set-up, and that’s been frustrating, I feel for both drivers.

“They brought the new floor this weekend, clearly they’ve closed the gap because both Charles and Lewis towards the end there were very competitive, and Lewis, he always comes back alive on a Sunday.

“I think his issue’s really much more on a Saturday with his qualifying pace, but in these long-run pace situations, he’s always a lot more on it, and you can feel that his energy’s lifted immediately as soon as he delivers a bit of performance.”

David Coulthard had concerns about Hamilton after qualifying, and Schiff’s analysis very much echoes his thoughts.

Hamilton wants to sit as close to the ground as possible when driving, but Ferrari were forced to raise his car after his disqualification in China.

Not only that, but Hamilton is still getting used to new systems at Ferrari, including different brakes to the ones he’s previously adapted to during his time at McLaren and Mercedes.

READ MORE: All you need to know about Scuderia Ferrari from team principal to factory

Why Ferrari should be worried about Lewis Hamilton not being able to use his ‘optimum set-up’

Hamilton spent his last few seasons at Mercedes struggling to extract the maximum potential out of his car.

Mercedes suffered with porpoising for years, forcing the team to run the car higher than he would have liked, and it ultimately cost them performance.

If Ferrari can’t get Hamilton’s car into the right performance window, then it leaves him at a significant disadvantage to Leclerc.

Leclerc isn’t happy with his Ferrari either, but he’s at least got years of experience in the team’s car and knows how to drive around the issues and adapt his set-up better.

Ferrari’s first update package of the year improved the car’s performance, but it wasn’t enough to put them in the same category as McLaren.

Time is running out to make that step, with every team starting to concentrate more and more on their cars for the upcoming regulation changes in 2026.