Ex-F1 racer Shinji Nakano believes Lewis Hamilton faces a challenging start to his first season as a Ferrari driver.
That is because after analysing Hamilton at the wheel of the Ferrari SF-25 during Bahrain testing, Nakano concluded that this is a “slightly peaky” car and retains that trend from the SF-24, therefore he believes Hamilton will need to go through a tricky process of tweaking his driving style.
Lewis Hamilton facing ‘not easy’ start with Ferrari SF-25?
There is a great deal of intrigue surrounding Hamilton as he readies for his big Ferrari debut, the seven-time World Champion having made the blockbuster move from Mercedes with a point to prove, after losing out to then team-mate George Russell in both the race and qualifying head-to-heads in 2024.
Hamilton has used up his four TPC [testing of previous car] outings and got his first feel for Ferrari’s new creation – the SF-25 – at a Fiorano filming day and in his day-and-a-half of Bahrain testing.
But, with the F1 2025 season-opening Australian Grand Prix taking place this weekend, Nakano believes Hamilton has work to do to adapt to his “slightly peaky” new Ferrari challenger.
And even for F1’s most successful driver, Nakano can envisage this being a tricky task.
“Of the transferees, Lewis Hamilton is attracting the most attention,” Nakano, a former F1 racer with Prost and Minardi, wrote in his as-web.jp column.
“Hamilton had the second-fastest time overall after [Carlos] Sainz in the pre-season test, but his performance suggests that he is struggling with the Ferrari car.
“Ferrari’s new SF-25 car seemed to retain some of the slightly peaky behaviour that the previous year’s car had shown.
“Naturally, we don’t know what Ferrari’s driving plan was for the test. Looking at the car’s behaviour alone, I didn’t think that Ferrari’s peakiness had disappeared easily.
“I’m sure Hamilton will adjust the car from here, including his own driving, but I have the impression that the entrance to this process will not be easy.”
Respected F1 designer Gary Anderson has also provided a concerning assessment of the Ferrari SF-25 when it comes to what Hamilton likes from an F1 car.
“From 2022-2024 he struggled to varying degrees with an unpredictable Mercedes, and last year was the low point,” Anderson wrote on Hamilton in his column for the Telegraph.
“Although he won two races it was comfortably – or should that be uncomfortably – the worst season of his career.
“It is still early days, but on first impressions it does not look as though the new Ferrari is a great upgrade on last year’s Mercedes W15.
“From the early running the SF-25 does not appear to be as driver friendly as I would expect.
“Hamilton likes a benign car from which he can extract the most from his talent and minimise lap time. It did not look that benign [in testing].
“When Hamilton drove the car it was hitting the ground quite hard and bouncing and this probably caused him to have a few minor off-track moments.
“There will always be uncertainty at this early stage of the season, yet when you see Hamilton making mistakes or running wide you can say for certain that the car is not giving him the feedback he wants.
“In short, I am not sure if he has a package – yet – better suited to him than the problematic car he drove in 2024.
“It is early days, though, and that may well come with some set-up experiments and when team-mate Charles Leclerc, who knows more how the Ferrari should feel, gets more into it.”