Hamilton: No Qatar GP recovery but will ‘try something different’

Lewis Hamilton suffered on Saturday evening in Qatar his second straight Q1 elimination, admitting he failed to string together his final lap in the first segment of qualifying.

The seven-time world champion revealed that Ferrari had made some slight gains between the Sprint and qualifying, but the final lap simply didn’t come together.

The Briton clocked in a lowly P18, only ahead of Lance Stroll and Franco Colapinto, and well adrift from Scuderia teammate Charles Leclerc who carried his car into the final top-ten shootout which he concluded P10.

“I think the early session was looking pretty decent and then I just didn’t get the last lap,” he said, explaining his Q1 exit with an air of resignation.

And with overtaking notoriously limited at Lusail, the Briton struggled to offer much optimism for Sunday’s race.

“Not really,” he said when asked if a recovery drive was possible. “You saw in the Sprint there’s no overtaking, so I’ll try something different, a strategy maybe, we’ll see.”

‘Other things need to be worked on’

Despite Ferrari’s early pivot to its 2026 car – a switch made, as team boss Fred Vasseur revealed, as far back as April – Hamilton hinted that the focus shift alone won’t fix the core problems impacting the Italian outfit.

“There are other things that are needing attention, so that’s about it,” he said, offering a pointed assessment of the broader challenges facing Maranello, although he did not elaborate on which areas require changes.

Hamilton said that he backed Ferrari’s decision to freeze early on the development of its SF-25, stressing that the call was not the root cause of its stumbles.

“Development’s not been the issue,” he said. “I wanted them to move to next year’s car, but I wanted to make sure we started early. I was in full support of that, because it’s a long year with what we had.

“There’s just other things that need to be worked on.”

A Quiet Message to Fans

After such a bruising run and a depressing past 24 hours, Hamilton was asked if he had a message for his fans.

"I don't really have a message right now. I'm sorry,” he said. “But I'm incredibly grateful for the support I've had all year. I wouldn't have made it through this year without them.”

Read also: Leclerc opens up on his limits helping Hamilton at Ferrari

With Ferrari’s form dipping and deeper structural concerns lingering, Hamilton leaves Qatar searching for answers – and hoping that the focus on 2026 doesn’t mask the work that needs to be done right now.

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