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The final sprint weekend of the 2025 Formula 1 calendar is looking like an up-hill battle for Ferrari, as Saturday of the Qatar Grand Prix is in the books.
It began during the sprint, with Lewis Hamilton starting from the pitlane after failing to move forward in SQ1 on Friday evening. Yet even with the last-minute changes to his car, Hamilton struggled to make any gains during the sprint itself, finishing in P17.
“I don't know how we made the car worse,” he lamented on his team radio afterwards.
What’s worse, his teammate, Charles Leclerc, was also fighting his car throughout the sprint, losing four positions on the opening lap. As things went on, Leclerc continued to struggle with his car snapping, and found himself in an arduous, multi-lap fight with the Haas of Oliver Bearman. In the end, neither he nor Hamilton were able to score any points in this round.
On his sprint, Leclerc told the media that it was, “Just incredibly difficult to drive the car. I don't have any explanations for now.”
Of note, unlike Hamilton, Leclerc made no changes to his car between sprint qualifying and the sprint itself, making the changes to the feeling of his car a mystery.
"I thought there was damage on the car. We saw something but it was after the first few laps where the problem was mostly in the first lap. We'll analyse that but it felt horrible."
But the day was only half-way done, and with Qualifying for the main event on Sunday coming up, Ferrari had one more chance to improve things.
On what they needed to do, Leclerc said, “Change the car massively for sure because the way it is at the moment, there's nothing we can do better if the car is the same.”
Indeed, the team did make adjustments to their setup that helped minimize issues with snapping and understeering both drivers were experiencing earlier. Yet despite this, Hamilton was again unable to capitalize, lacking the pace to advance into Q2 of qualifying. He will start Sunday’s Grand Prix from P18.
Leclerc likewise was having difficulty extracting pace from his car, even with any setup changes. He found himself at the very bottom of the timing tower during Q2, but was able to put down a fast enough lap on his last set of fresh softs, moving on to the final round by the skin of his teeth.
The troubles did not stop in Q3, however, as Leclerc took a massive spin early in the session. Thankfully, he was able to avoid substantial damage to his car thanks to the wide run-off areas at the Lusail International Circuit. He will line up in P10 on Sunday.
Cover image via Ferrari Media Centre.
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