Lewis Hamilton Struggles to Keep Up with Charles Leclerc at Suzuka and Faces Frustration Over Ferrari Performance

Lewis Hamilton’s time at Ferrari hasn’t been the dream move he’d hoped for, and his latest race in Japan was another tough outing.

The seven-time world champion started the race with high hopes but quickly found himself fighting an uphill battle.

After a disappointing qualifying session, Hamilton began in eighth place at the Suzuka Circuit and ended up finishing in seventh, behind his teammate Charles Leclerc.

The result marks the second consecutive race this season where Hamilton has been outpaced by Leclerc, leaving the British driver frustrated and still searching for answers.

Disappointment at Suzuka

The race in Japan didn’t offer much for Hamilton to feel positive about, despite managing to pass Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar early on. However, after that, things seemed to stall for the 40-year-old.

“Happy I moved forward,” Hamilton said after the race, acknowledging the small win of overtaking Hadjar.

But ultimately, finishing three places behind Leclerc, who ended up in fourth, left Hamilton feeling deflated.

He confessed that something within his car wasn’t performing as expected and vowed to work on figuring it out for future races.

Ferrari Struggles and Underperformance

Hamilton’s frustration was amplified by the sense that something is amiss with his car’s performance.

He expressed concerns over the performance gap between himself and Leclerc, highlighting that the difference in speed was noticeable.

“On my side, something is underperforming, so it’s good to know,” Hamilton said, reflecting on his struggles this season.

Although he managed to make the most out of what he had in Japan, the gap between him and his teammate was still clear.

Ferrari has a long way to go if they want to close the gap to their competitors, and Hamilton is determined to address these issues.

Team Radio Tensions and Communication Struggles

Another element of the race that didn’t sit well with Hamilton was the lack of communication and clarity from his new race engineer, Riccardo Adami.

The driver became visibly frustrated with the lack of concrete answers about the performance issues, and this frustration spilled over into some tense exchanges over the team radio.

This wasn’t the first time Hamilton had expressed annoyance about such issues, with similar concerns raised after the season opener in Melbourne.

For Hamilton, the answers need to come from the team if there’s to be any hope of turning things around.

Looking Ahead to Bahrain Grand Prix

Despite the frustration, Hamilton remains focused on the road ahead. “It will definitely be interesting,” he said, looking ahead to next weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

“I hope we’ll be a little bit closer. We’re probably the fourth fastest clearly at the moment.” Hamilton knows that the team has a lot of work ahead to close the performance gap to the front-runners.

With the season still young, he’s hopeful that Ferrari can make the necessary adjustments to get back in contention.

In the meantime, Hamilton’s main focus will be on improving his car’s performance and trying to outperform Leclerc in the coming races.

With Ferrari already trailing McLaren by 76 points in the constructors’ standings, the pressure is on both drivers to turn things around.