Jolyon Palmer thinks Lewis Hamilton does something at Ferrari that Max Verstappen is ‘too quick’ for

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Lewis Hamilton is still on the frustrating journey of getting to grips with his Ferrari F1 car, and Jolyon Palmer has pinpointed what he thinks the seven-time world champion is doing that Max Verstappen is ‘too quick’ for.

After coming off the back of a final season with Mercedes that saw him beaten in the teammate head-to-head by George Russell, the 40-year-old has had his work cut out for him up against the pacey Charles Leclerc.

The Monegasque has trumped his more experienced teammate in pretty much every category of the intra-team battle during the 2025 campaign, which is to be expected considering Hamilton’s lack of experience in F1 cars built by the iconic Italian racing outfit.

Despite being on the back foot to his teammate, the benchmarks that Leclerc sets can be handy in determining where Hamilton can improve, whether it be through personalised setups or even seeing specific areas of a race track where he faces a deficit.

This is one of the areas that Palmer has pinpointed for Hamilton to utilise in order for him to bridge the gap between himself and his Ferrari counterpart.

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Jolyon Palmer believes Lewis Hamilton’s preparation for race weekends differs from Max Verstappen’s

Speaking on an episode of the F1 Explains podcast, Palmer touched upon the usual process that race engineers and drivers follow to learn and build upon their findings after each race weekend.

The former F1 driver highlighted how each driver/engineer pairing will have a different way of working, comparing that of Hamilton to Verstappen.

After explaining that drivers may miss some meetings at their respective factory straight after a race weekend, Palmer said, “They’ll probably just dial back in or they’ll have a phone call or whatever and catch up on things.

“And some drivers, they get very little out of it. If you take Max, for example, he probably hasn’t had to bother looking at a teammate’s data for a very long time, because he’s learning nothing from it. He’s too quick for them.

“Whereas you’ve got someone like Lewis, who’s come over from Mercedes to Ferrari, learning a new way of life, new car, got a new teammate as well, who’s very quick.

“So he’s probably pouring in more to try and get up to speed quicker, and he’ll be dialling a little bit more in between the races to make sure that he’s bang on it. It really depends on the driver.”

READ MORE: Karun Chandhok says Ferrari engineer ‘riled up’ Lewis Hamilton with unnecessary message at Mexican Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton has been missing chemistry with his race engineer during his debut season with Ferrari

One of the reasons why Hamilton has failed to make as much of an impact as he has previously in F1 campaigns is down to the relationship he has with his engineer on the Ferrari pit wall, Riccardo Adami.

The pairing has lacked a seamless form of communication throughout the 40-year-old’s debut campaign with the Scuderia, leading some to believe that Hamilton is lacking chemistry with Adami.

Their relationship has been under the spotlight during the current term, due to Hamilton’s good relationship with his former race engineer, Peter Bonnington, during his highly successful years at Mercedes.

Sebastian Vettel’s heated comments to Adami resurfaced amid Hamilton’s struggles that were prevalent during the opening half of the season, with F1 fans pointing out that things don’t look to have changed in regards to Ferrari’s communications to their drivers.

Despite the ongoing issues, former Ferrari test driver Esteban Gutierrez is confident that Hamilton can make a step up in his sophomore season with the Scuderia next year.