Lewis Hamilton is hopeful an upgraded floor can enable Ferrari to “take a step” forward at the Bahrain Grand Prix this weekend.
The seven-time world champion has endured a frustrating start to his first campaign with the Italian team, who have fallen well short of their pre-season billing as title contenders.
While Hamilton won the Chinese Grand Prix Sprint, his results over full race distance across the first three rounds have been hugely underwhelming, with seventh place last weekend in Japan his best result so far, following a disqualification in China and 10th in Australia.
Hamilton told Sky Sports F1: “We’ve got an upgrade this weekend so I’m excited that hopefully we should have a bit more downforce.
“I’m not really feeling a huge amount of issues, just a lack of overall performance pace-wise, which we can hopefully take a step [forward] this weekend.”
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David Croft says we will find out in Bahrain if Ferrari’s car has a significant design fault that may rule them out of making a serious challenge this season
This weekend sees Formula 1 return to the scene of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit, which is another element that Hamilton hopes can lead to an upturn in Ferrari’s performance.
He added: “I’ve done quite a bit of driving since the test that we had here, so I should be a lot more comfortable in the car than I was through testing here.
“We’ve got an upgrade, we’ve got a better understanding of the set-up, so hopefully it should bode well for a better weekend.”
Despite being hopeful of improvement, Hamilton is not expecting the new parts to put Ferrari on equal terms with early front-runners McLaren.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri shared a win each over the first two races, before they were upset by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in Japan as the reigning world champion defied an apparent car performance deficit to beat the McLarens.
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Highlights from the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix from the Suzuka Circuit
Hamilton’s former team Mercedes, who he left after 12 seasons to join Ferrari, have also started the season far more impressively than the Italian team.
“We’re trying to figure out how to catch McLaren,” Hamilton said.
“They’ve obviously got a great car. They won the Constructors’ Championship last year, they’ve started off pretty well this this year, as have the other two top teams.
“I think we’ve learned a lot over the past few races. and I think hopefully this weekend it’s a step forward for us.
“It’s not necessarily closing the gap, but it should be going towards closing the gap. It’s not closing the gap completely, but if we can extract more from the car, which is what we’re trying to work on, hopefully we can see better results.”
Sky Sports F1’s Bahrain GP Schedule
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Sky Sports F1’s Martin Brundle explains how to win the Bahrain Grand Prix
Friday April 11
- 8.50am: F3 Practice
- 10am: F2 Practice
- 12pm: Bahrain GP Practice One (session starts at 12.30pm)*
- 1.55pm: F3 Qualifying
- 2.40pm: F2 Qualifying
- 3.35pm: Bahrain GP Practice Two (session starts at 4pm)
- 5.15pm: The F1 Show
Saturday April 12
- 11.10am: F3 Sprint Race
- 1.15pm: Bahrain GP Practice Three (session starts at 1.30pm)
- 3.10pm: F2 Sprint
- 4.10pm: Bahrain GP Qualifying build-up
- 5pm: BAHRAIN GP QUALIFYING
- 7pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook
Sunday April 13
- 10.50am: F3 Feature Race
- 12.20pm: F2 Feature Race
- 2.30pm: Bahrain GP build-up: Grand Prix Sunday
- 4pm: THE BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX
- 6pm: Bahrain GP reaction: Chequered Flag
- 7pm: Ted’s Notebook
*also live on Sky Sports Main Event
Formula 1 continues its triple-header in Sakhir at the Bahrain Grand Prix this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – No contract, cancel anytime
