Lewis Hamilton rumored to have the fastest car on the grid with Ferrari tipped to have jumped McLaren on performance: Reports

Reports suggest Lewis Hamilton may have the fastest car on the grid in 2025, with the Ferrari SF-25 seemingly surpassing McLaren in performance ahead of the season. This follows significant speculation regarding the Italian team's performance gains, aimed at closing the gap to their rivals after finishing just 14 points behind in the 2024 Constructors' Championship.

The most iconic team on the grid has drastically modified the 2025 challenger in its bid to win its first title since 2008. Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur had earlier claimed that they had changed "99%" of this year's car compared to SF-24, which finished P2 with five race wins.

As reported by Gazzetta dello Sport, there are rumors that the incremental gains taken by the Maranello-based outfit are enough to make them faster than McLaren ahead of the upcoming season. Lewis Hamilton, who headlines the morning session on Day 1 of the pre-season testing, seemed to justify these rumors as he sat atop the timings after the first hour.

Neither Ferrari nor McLaren have commented on any such reports as they are currently testing out their cars in Bahrain.

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F1 pundit chimes in on Lewis Hamilton's move to Ferrari

Sky Sports F1 pundit Ted Kravitz believes that Lewis Hamilton's move to Ferrari was a positive development as he could not find anything "not to like about this story."

While appearing on the F1 show, Kravitz spoke about the Brit's potential performance in the 2025 season and said (via PlanetF1):

“There is nothing not to like about this story. We will reflect the interest and enthusiasm of our audience as long as it stays interesting. If they are finishing third and fourth, then we’ll stop talking about them. But if we start winning, then obviously we’re going to talk about them."

However, the F1 pundit pointed out an interesting tidbit about the seven-time F1 world champion's acclimatization process and added:

"The main takeaway from the interview I did with him at the launch, is that he said that he was expecting, based on his previous team moves, to need a kind of six-month transition in getting to know a team and to be up here. And he is confident that he has shortened that dramatically.

“But part of the whole testing of the previous car stuff in Fiorano and Barcelona, part of all of that was just short, cutting, shrinking that period of acclimatisation, and so that he is expecting, hoping, planning on being right up there with Leclerc at the beginning of the season.”

Lewis Hamilton had won his first race with the Mercedes F1 team after six months in Hungary 2013 which was his only victory during his first year with the German team.