Max Verstappen claims Ferrari have unsettled Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari torment has been dissected by just about everybody, with F1 champion Max Verstappen now offering his thoughts on his former rival’s decline.

You can forgive Hamilton for his evaporating enthusiasm as the season has progressed, with each race weekend finding a new method to to inflict misery on the seven-time world champion.

The Qatar Grand Prix represented the latest low point for Hamilton, suffering a double Q1 exit in sprint and main race qualifying and finished P12 overall on Sunday, results which naturally left him at a loss for words.

While the SF-25 has been by no means an easy car to drive this year, Hamilton’s woes have been amplified by the performances of his younger team-mate Charles Leclerc, whose 2025 season has at least seen some glimmer of success.

When the car has been strong, Leclerc has been able to convert the result into seven podium finishes in contrast to Hamilton, who has nothing but a modicum of fourth place finishes to show for himself.

Verstappen sympathises with Hamilton

Even at the Qatar GP – where Leclerc himself was rendered speechless at the state of his spinning Ferrari – the Monegasque driver managed to wrangle his machinery into Q3, albeit obtaining a grid slot below Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz.

Ahead of all the drama in Qatar, Hamilton’s former 2021 title rival Max Verstappen had his say on the 40-year-old’s misfortune and explained how tough it is to fight a team-mate as strong as Charles Leclerc.

“If you don’t feel secure or comfortable within the team dynamic, you cannot be yourself and that has an impact,” Verstappen explained to the media.

“You leave a team that has been your second family in Mercedes, and you’ve built such a career with them […] and then going in a completely different direction is not easy — plus, you’re going up against a guy (Charles) who’s been there for a while. It’s very tough.

“And age is not on your side. You’re not going to become faster at that age — not necessarily slower, but definitely not faster — whereas Charles is still improving, so that’s not helping him either.”

READ MORE: Hamilton out? Ferrari chief 'meets Sainz's manager' in Qatar

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