Hamilton finds himself once again in a 'similar situation to what it was at Mercedes'

Entering his next chapter of his Formula 1 career he began back in 2007, Hamilton is struggling at Ferrari. Other than a standout result during the China Sprint event, which was both his and Ferrari's first-ever victory since the format was introduced, he is behind his teammate Charles Leclerc.

"He says he's just struggling to feel the limit of the grip of the car. He's struggling to find a balance and he's just struggling to feel when the car is at its peak and not going over either axle with understeer or oversteer," Palmer began about Hamilton's situation on the F1 Nation podcast.

Even with that, the driver turned analyst saw the best of the driver during the China Sprint. "The interesting thing with Lewis is we saw a flash of the champ in him in that China Sprint and the Sprint Qualifying. And Sprint Qualifying is basically is a qualifying session, isn't it, it’s how fast you can go in the end on a soft tyre. And when the car was working for him, he looked like the seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton."

During the Chinese Grand Prix, Hamilton got disqualified for floor wear, but there was still a positive sign for the Briton according to Palmer. "He basically had the car in a decent window. But he's just struggling to feel the grip in it at the moment and struggling to feel where he can explore more and more potential out of it on the corner entries the mid corner of the exit your three phases, And it's all a big head-scratcher for him right now."

Over the previous season, Hamilton managed to put together strong performances, including his victory in Silverstone, or the victory in Belgium where he provisionally finished behind George Russell, who opted for an unexpected alternative strategy.

"It doesn't feel that dissimilar to what was happening to him last year in the Mercedes though. He’d be looking good one minute and the next he'd just be scratching his head wondering where the actual speed has gone," Palmer continued.

In Bahrain, Hamilton's second stint once again showed promise, but in Saudi Arabia, he was far behind his teammate Leclerc again. "I'd say the concern for Lewis is that the performance obviously isn't there apart from that Sprint in China. He's had quite a lot of races to look at the data, he's working with the team and actually he was the most downbeat he's been after Saudi still not understanding how he can extract more from the the car he's got," the former Renault driver concluded.

After five rounds have been completed, Hamilton is currently seventh in the championship with 31 points. In terms of the constructors' standings, Ferrari trail McLaren by 110 points in total.