“He clearly needs to do something”: Ted Kravitz warns Lewis Hamilton to fix Ferrari qualifying woes as team principal Fred Vasseur loses patience

Lewis Hamilton's switch to Scuderia Ferrari was one of the most headline-grabbing moves in Formula 1 history, but the British racing icon has already come under scrutiny just a couple of races into the 2025 season. Following a poor qualifying performance at the Bahrain Grand Prix, where he could only muster P9 on the grid, the focus is squarely on Lewis Hamilton's one-lap pace problems.


Lewis Hamilton's initial Ferrari qualifying performances have seen him receive a warning as Sky Sports F1 commentator Ted Kravitz calls the seven-time world champion to assert himself in the situation before it gets out of hand. Lewis Hamilton, who signed with Scuderia Ferrari to rejuvenate his career, was over six-tenths behind teammate Charles Leclerc's pace during qualifying in Bahrain. Hamilton took ninth on the grid, while Leclerc took third — a concerning sign so early in the season.
Ted Kravitz didn't pull his punches when analysing Lewis Hamilton's recent performances, stressing that neither Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur nor the dedicated fanbase will stand for anything less than quality qualifying attempts.
“When he was struggling in qualifying in the Mercedes, he only had half of the season left to go with them,” Kravitz said. “He was happy enough to make people think maybe it wasn’t entirely him; maybe it was the Mercedes setup, which was working against him and how they ran the car. He knows now, given he has a year and three quarters left on his Ferrari contract, he needs to make this work. He knows it’s not something he can just defer until the end of his time with the team. He needs to make this qualifying thing work with a Ferrari. How do you do that? I don’t know.”
Hamilton finally moved up to finish fifth in the Bahrain race, one position behind Charles Leclerc, demonstrating that his excellent racecraft is still in place. Yet Kravitz emphasised that frequent Saturday malaises may overpower Sunday salvages. “He clearly needs to do something to work on this because he doesn’t want to hear he hasn’t got in qualifying anymore. Fred Vasseur doesn’t want to hear he hasn’t got it in qualifying anymore. The Tifosi don’t want to hear that. Ferrari don’t want to hear that. That’s the crucial thing for me. The race was no problem. Lewis was great. He was great in the race - a good recovery,” Kravitz added.

Lewis Hamilton's qualifying record is one of the greatest in F1 history. Over the course of his career, he has only been outqualified by a teammate over the course of a season twice — in 2014 by Nico Rosberg, and more recently in 2024 when George Russell beat him to it at Mercedes. Thus far in 2025, the score is 3-1 to Leclerc's favor, with Hamilton's sole Saturday victory having been in Shanghai. Although not yet scary, the trend represents an early test for the Briton's redemption story at Ferrari.
Also read: Lewis Hamilton to co-chair 2025 Met Gala, lands Vogue cover with powerful message on Black style
Lewis Hamilton has always boasted of being able to adjust quickly, and he'll need to call on that skill now more than ever. Ferrari and Fred Vasseur are demanding performance and Charles Leclerc is running away with qualifying, so the pressure is mounting. If Hamilton is to silence the critics and restore his one-lap superiority, now's the time to do it — because in Formula 1 reputations are made as fast as they can be lost.