Lewis Hamilton has denied speculation that Ferrari is set to develop the rear suspension on its car, amid a difficult start to the 2025 Formula 1 campaign.
The Brit has got off to a slow start at the Italian giants, and ahead of this weekend’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, he languishes down in seventh place in the Drivers’ Championship.
Team-mate Charles Leclerc has not fared much better, sitting in fifth with 12 more points than Hamilton, the pair struggling with the tricky SF-25.
Originally predicted to be the closest challenger to McLaren, the Scuderia has so far been unable to compete, with Hamilton’s Sprint win in China and Leclerc’s third place in Saudi Arabia its only highlights.
One of the key aspects of the SF-25 that is letting is down is the rear suspension, which is said to be not rigid enough to help provide a more stable feel, and therefore a better performance.
This has led to some fairly scathing comments from Hamilton about the car, saying after the Bahrain Grand Prix that it felt “alien” to him.
It had been rumoured that the team were hoping to bring a revised version of the suspension to Imola, but Hamilton vehemently denied such gossip, adding that the flexi-wing changes from the Spanish Grand Prix next month could prove to be a help to the team.
“I don’t know what they are talking about,” he was quoted as saying by FormulaPassion.it. “I am not doing any work on the rear suspension. As I said, between now and [Spain], we will try to unlock some performances that we have not been able to exploit.
“We are following our plan. We hope to be able to get at least something more than in the last race. In Spain, everyone will have to fit a different front wing. It will be interesting to see how it will affect the grid, we won’t know until we are there.”
Lewis Hamilton hopeful of ‘one step’ forward
Lewis Hamilton did state that there is more to come from the SF-25 without any drastic alterations, and is keeping his glass half-full that this weekend’s race will see improvements.
“The car still has a lot of performance that we have not been able to unlock,” he said. “I hope that this week we can start to take at least one step in that direction. There is one problem in particular on the car, probably the most significant one, and that is what we are trying to correct. But there are other related problems as well, which ultimately set us back.”
Hamilton did however confirm that changes are afoot at some stage, but was coy on conveying too much confidence in what it will do for the team’s prospects.
“At the moment, I am aware of some things that are in the pipeline, but I can’t tell you if we will be able to gain four tenths, half a second, one second by the end of the season.
“We can’t close the door on any ideas, we have to keep our eyes open and our heads up. We have to keep pushing with the expectation and the goal of winning.
“That is the goal of every weekend: when I am sitting here with the engineers, I ask myself how we are going to win this weekend. Maybe I’m a little too confident, but that’s how you have to approach every race.
“You have to arrive positive and aggressive. I’m not going into this weekend thinking we’re going to be seventh and eighth, even though we’re in that zone. And I will change that mentality.”
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