Hamilton battling elusive issue hiding under the hood of SF-25

Lewis Hamilton achieved in Japan his best Sunday result yet with Ferrari, concluding his race at Suzuka seventh overall, yet the Briton has revealed that a persistent issue continues to weigh on his car’s performance.

Despite a bold strategy offset – starting his race on Pirelli’s hard tyres, unique among the top 10 – Hamilton was only able to overtake a single rival: Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar.

Hamilton was denied a better result by his successor at Mercedes, rookie Kimi Antonelli who, like the seven-time world champion, had opted to extend his first stint, but on the medium rubber.

An Identified Performance Deficit

“I think I did the best I could today,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 post-race. “I’m generally lacking performance compared to all the cars that are up ahead of me, particularly Mercedes, McLaren and obviously the Red Bull.”

The culprit? A recently identified flaw costing him dearly.

“We found something on the car that’s been underperforming for the last three races, so I’m really hoping when that’s fixed, and I’ll start getting better results,” he revealed.

“But yeah, I’m losing just over a tenth per lap with this issue we have.”

While the gremlin’s discovery is a step forward, a resolution remains elusive, for now.

“I think it’s just they’re aware of it and they don’t know what’s caused it, they don’t know why,” Hamilton explained.

“And so, as I said, when the new component comes, hopefully it’ll be gone and it’ll be the same across cars. So I’m hoping in the next race it’s fixed.”

Making the Best of a Bad Hand

At Suzuka, qualifying dictated the day – eight of the top 10 finishers held their grid spot – making Hamilton’s climb from P8 to P7 a minor achievement.

His hard-tyre gamble aimed to shake things up, but the car’s woes capped his progress. Still, he found positives.

“I’m relatively happy with the race pace that I did have, given what I had,” he said. “But otherwise, good performance from the team. I think myself and Riccardo [Adami – race engineer] did a really good job, and the engineers and mechanics all did a really great job.”

For Ferrari, the mountain looms large. Leclerc’s P4 showed the SF-25’s ceiling, but Hamilton’s underlying issue underscores a deeper challenge.

A tenth per lap – roughly 5.5 seconds over Suzuka’s 53 laps – separates him from contention. Until the fix arrives, Hamilton is stuck battling shadows of his Mercedes past and the untapped potential of his Ferrari present.

The clock is ticking for Maranello to unroot the demon hiding under the hood and unleash the champion within.

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Michael Delaney