Lewis Hamilton will be starting the F1 Abu Dhabi GP season finale from P16, in what appears to be yet another disappointing weekend for Scuderia Ferrari. This quali round marks the 3rd one where he is out in Q1, a first for the 7-times-world-champion.
A negative record for Lewis Hamilton
Over the season, the car has been lacking pace and has proved to be rather challenging to drive on multiple occasions. Things got progressively worse, leading up to the Brazilian GP, where the disastrous streak started out.
The last time he managed to bring the SF-25 into Q3 was back in October in Mexico. Since then, Hamilton has been getting out of qualifying at the first round in the following weekends in São Paulo, Las Vegas and Lusail. Three, four times in a row, if we also consider the Sprint in Qatar. Certainly not something a driver as successful as him is used to. Here, in Yas Marina where he was won a record five times.
“I don’t have the words to express how I feel, just a lot of anger,” was his comment after a journalist made him notice it at the end of qualifying.
Hamilton’s troubles started in free practice at the F1 Abu Dhabi GP
This being the very last round of the season meant in free practice drivers left the seat to the rookies for the usual end of the year sessions.
Lewis Hamilton’s seat became Arthur Leclerc’s for FP1, leaving less time to try and adjust in the car at the F1 Abu Dhabi GP.
He was a couple of tenths off Charles Leclerc in Q1.
“It’s never helpful when you’re less running for sure, but everyone’s in the same boat,” he said.
In FP2 things hadn’t started out brilliantly, as he couldn’t do better than a P14. But where things really went downhill was in FP3, as he spun at Turn 9 and went into the barriers. The 105-time race winner was looking fast until then.
“It definitely doesn’t help when you have missed your second run. But the car was feeling great, it just had some bottoming and then lost the backend.”
He suffered a technical issue on the suspension, on which he didn’t give out many details. Asked if Ferrari managed to understand what caused the problem, he replied: “No, they just fixed the car. They saw some bouncing going in and they said that carried all the way through.”
Nothing bright looking forward for Lewis Hamilton
An ending that pairs fairly with what turned out to be a nightmarish 1st season at Ferrari. Definately not what everyone, including himself, were expecting when his arrival was announced.
Looking forward to tomorrow’s race starting from the back, he commented: “there’s not a lot you can do from there.
“It’s the same thing every weekend for me.”
After both drivers had to battle out with such a struggling car, hopes are that with the new regulations the team finally finds performance.
Nonetheless, it won’t be easy to prepare for a new start.
“Time will tell,” if the winter break will be enough to reset mentally and prepare for the 2026 season.
