"It is not a carryover," claims Vasseur as he opens up about Ferrari's current struggles with consistency

Following the opening five races of the 2025 F1 season, Lewis Hamilton had glimpses of good performance, but the seven-time world champion has so far failed to find the sweet spot with the SF25. However, Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur is sure that the Briton will help the Scuderia make improvement in the future.

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.

On the back of another tough weekend for Hamilton in Saudi Arabia, Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur claims that the seven-time F1 champion's experience will help the Scuderia make inroads in the closely-matched fight in 2025.

"He's coming with his own experience – 20 years in F1, different teams, almost ten years at McLaren, 12 years at Mercedes. It’s always good to have someone joining the team with that kind of experience, this kind of vision to help us improve. We have four teams fighting for the win today – perhaps five or six tomorrow – but four teams with different structures, different people different, management.

"And yet, we’re all able to put four cars in one tenth. That means it's not that someone is right or wrong. It's that we have to try to understand what others are doing and try to get the best from them also. We're in this mode today.

Asked about what the key is to unlock the potential of the SF-25 that has proved difficult to set up and sensitive to conditions, Vasseur noted that tyre play a key part in the development of pecking order.

"Well, the key, I think, is the same for everybody – perhaps except McLaren because they are a step ahead – but it's quite difficult to put everything together. The tyres are very sensitive, and as soon as you make a mistake, you are doing a step back. We're in a pack where on the grid, you told me that qualifying was the best one for Charles, but if you look behind, with four hundredths more, you're P6 or P7.

"That means we have to stay calm, and we have to stay calm on the conclusions. I think it's true for us, but it's true for everybody. If you look at Max, for example, he was flying in Japan, and the weekend after, he was struggling. Today in F1, the pack is so tight that for small mistakes, you can lose five or six positions on the grid.

Pushed on to reveal how Ferrari can get the SF25 in the right operating window, Vasseur has conceded that it has proved very difficult for the Maranello-based outfit to find the right balance.

"I think it’s true that this stint went well for us. Unfortunately, the Safety Car came also a bit too early. But now the issue – or the project – is to be much more consistent, to have a good stint in the race or a good stint in Q3 or Q2. If we want to come back and fight for the win, we need to have much more consistent weekends.

"This one is starting in a good way. But I think it was a good example – even China – the Sprint Race and the Sprint Quali went well. And as you can imagine, we didn’t turn the car upside down after winning the first one for the day after. We are really on the edge.

"I don’t want to speak about the others, but as soon as you push a bit too much, you pay the price with the tyres the corner after. It’s really on the edge, very difficult to find the right balance. But we are improving in this direction.

Asked what Ferrari can do more to get Hamilton comfortable, Vasseur has revealed that main issue is that the Scuderia developed a new car for this season instead of an evolution of the car from the previous year.

"It doesn’t matter if it’s Lewis, Charles, or Carlos last year – we’re always trying to do the best for the drivers and to find a good balance in the car for them. We’re pushing on both cars exactly the same way. I think you were all a bit more enthusiastic on Saturday evening in China – speaking about the prize-giving ceremony and all that – and we have to calm down a little bit.

"Now, it’s true that we have a new car. It’s not a carryover from last year, and we’re probably struggling a bit more to find the right balance and the right setup. But this is the life of every team on the grid. Sometimes for one tenth, you can feel the balance is not a good one at all or not that bad.

"So let’s be focused, I’m speaking for us, on the next and the next races. The very positive point is we’re working as a team. The two drivers are pushing in the same direction. We have a good atmosphere in the team, and this will help us come back."