Lewis Hamilton's confidence is shot at Ferrari as the pre-season 'bombast' is gone, claims F1 expert

F1 pundit Ruud Dimmers mentioned that the hype around Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton has gone after five rounds into the 2025 season. The seven-time F1 world champion has had a tough time with the Italian team as he has struggled to gel with the SF-25.

There was a lot of hype surrounding the British driver's move to the most iconic F1 team, with many even putting him as one of the contenders for the championship in 2025. However, apart from the Sprint in China, which he dominated, Hamilton has not finished ahead of his teammate Charles Leclerc.

While appearing on the RacingNews365 podcast, Dimmers commented on the reception of the media and the "bombast" around Lewis Hamilton deflating after five races in the 2025 season, saying:

"At the moment, it is not so much about Ferrari, but more about Lewis, I think. He himself says: 'I've lost it, nothing works.' After five races, there is nothing left of the bombast with which he arrived last winter. The Italian media are very hard on him.

"He is hard on himself. A fifth place in Bahrain is his best result, and Leclerc has finished well ahead of him every time. Yes, there really is more to come. The only question is: will it turn out well?"

Lewis Hamilton is P6 with 31 points to his name and sits behind Kimi Antonelli, who replaced him at Mercedes at the beginning of the season.

Martin Brundle comments on Lewis Hamilton's demeanor in the media

Former F1 driver and pundit Martin Brundle stated that he was not fully on board with Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton's comments about struggling to gel with the SF-25 so far.

Speaking with Sky Sports, the F1 commentator gave his viewpoint on the 40-year-old's downbeat post-race interviews and said in Saudi Arabia:

"He ended up 31 seconds behind Charles Leclerc, his teammate. Obviously had a little bit more traffic because he was further down the grid so you can take some off for that but it was up and down. I struggle to buy into he doesn’t understand the car.

"It’s a new car, but here we are knocking on the door of May, and they’ve had all the pre-season stuff and all that. So I just think Lewis hasn’t gelled with this car and I don’t think he’s going the right way on the setup. I know from the things I’ve heard from Mercedes about how Lewis likes the car in a certain way."

Lewis Hamilton has largely struggled in the ground-effect era of cars, which began in 2022 and has registered just two races in Silverstone and Spa since 2021. He has another 19 races and five Sprints this year to turn his confidence and performances around before another set of regulations kicks in next year.