Hamilton hugely critical after Ferrari debut: "Didn't have any confidence"

A critical Lewis Hamilton said he is ready "to make some changes" after his debut Grand Prix with Ferrari. The seven-time world champion was only good enough to finish in P10 come the end of the race, saying that he "didn't have any confidence" behind the wheel of the SF-25.

It was a chaotic Grand Prix to kick off the 2025 Formula 1 season, with three safety cars and six DNFs highlighting how tricky the conditions were at the Albert Park circuit, with heavy rain falling in the morning to soak the track, while continued lighter rain fell for the majority of the race, turning it from a wet to dry race, before going back onto the wet weather tyres.

With those changeable conditions and a greasy track, Hamilton struggled to really get to grips with his Ferrari, unable to fight his way through the field like he has done in the rain on many occasions throughout his career, A late gamble by Ferrari did not pay off either, with the Scuderia hoping to stay out on dry tyres and outfox the rest of the grid. Unfortunately, they could not manage it, resulting in them coming in later and dropping down the grid.

Hamilton says Ferrari are "lacking in pace"

Speaking to several media sources in the paddock in Melbourne, including GPblog, Hamilton started with some critical words: "I didn't have any confidence today, unfortunately. I'm going to make some changes next week to the car, to the setup.

"It wasn't the braking," continued the 40-year-old when asked what the issues were today. "It was just rear stability, particularly on power. There were lots of snaps. I was nearly in the wall lots of times."

Of course, with Hamilton's move to the Scuderia, he also moved away from long-time race engineer Peter 'Bono' Bonnington, now working alongside Italian Riccardo Adami, who also worked with Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz. However, there were a couple of times when Hamilton wanted silence over the team radio, telling Adami to let him concentrate on his driving.

"I think Riccardo did a really good job," Hamilton said when asked about the relationship between the two of them. "We're learning about each other. After this, we'll go through all the comments, things I said, and vice versa. Generally, I'm not one who likes a lot of information in races unless I need it, but he did his best today.

"I'm grateful I got through it [the Grand Prix] and came out with it with a little bit of something, at least at one point. Obviously, I didn't go off or spin today, but we are lacking pace for sure. But, I do believe the car has more performance than we were able to extract this weekend. It was even less performance, for example, in the race, but I think it's all settings," concluded the Brit.