David Coulthard spotted something ‘very troubling’ after Lewis Hamilton’s ‘worrying’ Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying

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Lewis Hamilton is not in the position he would have been hoping for going into the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The seven-time world champion’s fourth race weekend as a Ferrari driver hasn’t gone to plan, and a worrying trend may be returning from his final year racing for Mercedes.

After qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton is preparing to start from the fifth row of the grid alongside Red Bull’s second driver, Yuki Tsunoda.

Ferrari brought new parts to Bahrain, and Hamilton had a slight advantage over Charles Leclerc going into the race weekend.

Leclerc sat out of FP1 to allow rookie Dino Beganovic to take part in his first Formula 1 practice, giving Hamilton an extra hour in the car.

It wasn’t a productive session for any driver, but at least allowed Hamilton to acclimate to the SF-25 while his teammate sat and studied his data.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t hook up that all-important final lap in Q3 and has plenty of work to do on Sunday as a result.

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David Coulthard worried about Lewis Hamilton after his Bahrain Grand Prix comments

Hamilton was disconsolate on the team radio after the final session of qualifying, and his mood hadn’t improved by the time he reached the media pen.

The 40-year-old admitted that Leclerc’s performance in qualifying proved that Ferrari’s car has decent pace; he just wasn’t capable of extracting it at the crucial moment.

David Coulthard and Lee McKenzie were discussing how qualifying unfolded on Channel 4.

It was put to Coulthard that Hamilton sounds ‘flat’ after another tough qualifying session, and he explained: “Yeah, look, it’s always very troubling when you have Lewis coming across [like] that.

“I understand that he’s being asked by lots of people to explain immediately after getting out of the car what’s going wrong in qualifying, but he’s also a professional, he’s been around a long time, so, when he is so visibly showing his frustration and disappointing an being very short with the answers, ‘Well, it’s Saturday, of course, I have a proble.’

“That, I suppose, a psychologist would start dissecting. I believe in Lewis, I think he’s only one lap away from showing his brilliant best.

“But, right now, he’s sort of looking at a track he knows, against a teammate that he respects, of course, and he’s going, ‘I can’t do that right now.’ That’s a worrying position to be in.”

McKenzie added: “It gives me PTSD, it reminds me of when I was doing those interviews in 2010, 2011, when he sounded a little bit like that at McLaren.”

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Lewis Hamilton aiming for top-five finish at the Bahrain Grand Prix

Reflecting on qualifying and his aims for Sunday, Hamilton explained: “It wasn’t the day I was hoping for.

“The changes made overnight set us back in FP3, and while we applied further setup adjustments ahead of qualifying, it just didn’t come together, and I also didn’t find the performance window I needed.

“Credit to Charles, who did a great job out there. On a positive note, the race pace looked promising yesterday, and with a long race ahead, there’s still an opportunity to make progress.”

In another of his media appearances, Hamilton admitted that he was hoping to secure a top-five finish for Ferrari during the race.

His performance in the Sprint Race in China shouldn’t be discounted as he nailed qualifying and led from start to finish, but that display is looking more and more like an outlier with every passing session.

Fifth would be Hamilton’s best finish in a Grand Prix since joining Ferrari, but finishing there would involve potentially having to overtake Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, who are also out of position.

That won’t be easy, but the race in Bahrain isn’t expected to be as processional as last weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.