Ferrari remain unbeaten in the pit lane with brilliant stops

Although Ferrari have struggled to extract everything from their 2025 F1 car, the SF25, the Scuderia has been unbeaten in the pit lane across the opening rounds.

Lewis Hamilton left Mercedes at the end of previous season to join Ferrari for 2025. The seven-time F1 champion suffered a rocky start to the current season, having struggled for pace in Australia.

However, the Briton went on to secure pole position for the Shanghai sprint before dominating the 19-lap race. The following Suzuka round turned out to be a difficult weekend for Hamilton as he struggled for pace in qualifying while he also suffered from higher tyre degradation than his direct rivals experienced.

The 40-year-old then appeared to be more comfortable in his SF-25 in Bahrain, but he failed to put a good lap together in the last qualifying segment, ending up only ninth on the grid. However, he finally displayed encouraging race pace at last Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix, pursuing an offset strategy to move up to grid to a fifth-place finish thanks to a series of brilliant overtaking manoeuvres.

In contrast to McLaren and Mercedes, the Scuderia did not opt for soft tyres, but had both drivers start the race on mediums. As a result, Charles Leclerc and Hamilton were able to drive a longer first stint and even formed the leading duo for a while.

Hamilton dropped back from second to tenth place as he emerged from his first pit stop, but was soon able to work his way up to P5 on a fresh set of mediums. When the safety car came out on lap 32 due to debris on the track, the Scuderia made the correct decision to call Hamilton in for a second tyre change.

In 2.16 seconds, the Ferrari mechanics swapped Hamilton’s worn medium tires for a fresh set of hard tires to resume the chase for the podium. However, a Top Three finish ultimately eluded him, and he took the checkered flag in fifth place behind team-mate Leclerc.

"The energy in this team is fantastic," said Hamilton, with special thanks to his mechanics. "The guys are pushing very hard, and the pit stops were fantastic today. They train so hard, and I am adjusting to their pit stops as well."

Sauber have been the second quickest in the pit lane, having changed the tyres on Gabriel Bortoleto's car in just 2.24s, and the Mattia Binotto-led outfit completed another quick stop, completing the tyre service on Nico Hulkenberg's car in just 2.29s.

Mercedes carried out the third-quickest stop, changing the tyres on George Russell's car in 2.27s. Interestingly, the slowest stop belonged to Red Bull, with Max Verstappen's second tyre service having taken 6.27s. The Dutchman's first visit was also suboptimal with a duration of 4.72s.