Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were both feeling incredibly down about their chances of success at the 2025 Miami Grand Prix following a disappointing Sprint Qualifying session.
Despite both reaching SQ3 at the Miami International Autodrome, neither Leclerc nor Hamilton ever really appeared to be in with a genuine chance of getting pole position for Saturday’s Sprint race for Ferrari.
That honour went to Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli, with Max Verstappen, the two McLaren‘s and teammate George Russell being the real rivals for top spot when the soft-tyre laps started coming in. Leclerc will start the Sprint race from P6, whilst Hamilton will start just behind in P7.
Hamilton isn’t expecting improvements
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the session, Lewis Hamilton admitted that Sprint Qualifying went better for him than Free Practice 1 had, saying: “It was a better session. P1 was probably a bit better, the car was a bit better, the car was a bit nicer to drive. We are just lacking speed but we just keep working from there.”
However, when he was asked if he thinks he can make up places on the cars ahead of him on the grid, the seven-time world champions was not exactly brimming with confidence.
“Not really. I think all the cars ahead are faster. I don’t know what else to say,” Hamilton responded.
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Finally, the British driver was asked if the team has ideas on how to improve and he said: “There’s always ideas. Whether or not they will be right or not.. there’s definitely learnings to be taken – set-up changes, how the car behaved, there’s definitely work to do to pick up speed going into the rest of the weekend.”
Leclerc laments ‘bad’ qualifying performance
Those sentiments were echoed when Leclerc spoke to Sky, as he admitted that he does not think there is any more pace to extract from the car at this stage.
When asked how the qualifying session went, the Monegasque driver said: “Bad. The lap was good. But the pace is just not at all there for now, so it’s a bit annoying but it’s the way it is for now.
“I’ll try my best tomorrow to try to do something special with the start, but to be honest, there’s not much room for improvement today. It was just… that’s the pace of the car.
“It’s every corner, really, so it’s not like we are particularly weak in one type of corner. Yes, the slow speed seems to be a little bit more of our weakness, but it changes from one weekend to the other, so it’s just not great.”
