Lewis Hamilton takes the blame for his miserable performance at the 2025 Spanish GP by hinting there was little wrong with his Ferrari car and that he was the problem at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
The 40-year-old had started from fifth on June 1 but immediately began to drop down the field as he struggled for rear grip with his SF-25 package, suffering team orders to swap positions with Charles Leclerc before later being passed by George Russell’s Mercedes on strategy.
A late safety car offered him a glimmer of hope to salvage his day by bunching the pack back up together, but he couldn’t take advantage and eventually was overtaken by Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber, a new low in this Formula 1 season.
As a result, a clearly dejected Hamilton takes the blame for his miserable 2025 Spanish GP by suggesting he’s actually the reason why he lacked any pace, as Leclerc went on to finish third.
“Well, what do you want me to say,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1. “I’ve had a really bad day and have nothing to say. It was a difficult day.
“There’s nothing else to add to it. It was terrible. There’s no point explaining it. It’s not your fault. I just don’t know what to say.”
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Hamilton added, of if Ferrari can find any answers: “I’m sure they won’t – it was probably just me.”
Sunday’s sudden loss of speed proved to be a dramatic contrast to Saturday, where he had actually qualified ahead of his teammate for just the second time this year and offer promise for a good race.
Traditionally one of his best tracks, Barcelona is a location where he’s appeared on the podium 12 times in the past but that simply did not materialize for Ferrari as he struggled with poor balance throughout the 66 laps.
“I have no idea why it was so bad,” Hamilton added to media, including Total-Motorsport.com. “Worst race I’ve experienced, balance-wise.”
The seven-time world champion eventually went on to finish sixth when Red Bull’s Max Verstappen collected a 10-second time penalty for a dramatic and controversial incident with Russell.
Ferrari say Hamilton had an ‘issue’ at 2025 Spanish GP
Such a sudden contrast in form for Hamilton has not been witnessed since the Chinese GP in March when he went from Sprint Race victory to sixth in the Grand Prix in under 24 hours, before later being disqualified.
The outcome has left him low on confidence once again and now 23 points behind Leclerc in the standings, although he now has until June 14 to reset ahead of the 2025 Canadian GP at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
And a crumb of salvation may perhaps be found in the fact that Fred Vasseur, the Ferrari boss, says the 40-year-old had an issue during the last stint, although he stopped why of admitting what it was.
“You are experienced enough to draw a conclusion after the first words of the driver,” Vasseur said. “If you want to create a polemic, you can. But it’s not the case.
“I think he did 70 percent of the race in front of Russell. I’m not sure that Russell said that the race was a disaster.
“But then we had an issue on the car the last stint, before the Safety Car. The result is not good, but he did 45 laps in front of Russell.”
