Lewis Hamilton ‘excited’ as Ferrari upgrade looks to kick-start F1 season in Bahrain

Hamilton won the sprint race in China but has not finished in the top-six in a grand prix so far this year

Lewis Hamilton is optimistic an upgrade to Ferrari’s car this weekend in Bahrain will improve the Scuderia’s pace after a tough start to the 2025 F1 season.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton, who moved to Ferrari in the off-season after 12 years and six world titles with Mercedes, has endured a mostly disappointing start to his time at the Italian giants.

While the 40-year-old did win the sprint race in China, he only finished 10th and seventh in Australia and Japan respectively while he was disqualified, alongside teammate Charles Leclerc, from the main grand prix in Shanghai after both cars failed post-race technical checks.

As a result, Hamilton is only eighth in the championship standings – 47 points behind leader Lando Norris – but insists Ferrari are eyeing an improvement in performance in race four this weekend.

“We’ve got an upgrade this weekend, I’m excited,” he said on media day in Bahrain.

“We should hopefully have a bit more downforce. I’m not feeling a huge amount of issues, we lack overall performance at the moment pace-wise.

“Hopefully we take a step this weekend. From my side, it’s rear-end – and that’s it.”

However, Hamilton’s teammate Leclerc admitted he is not expecting the upgrade to close the gap to frontrunners McLaren completely.

“We have some new bits on the car coming which I hope will help us close that gap a little bit,” the Monegasque said.

Lewis Hamilton has not finished higher than seventh in a grand prix so far this season (Getty Images)

Hamilton and Leclerc are eyeing improved performance from the SF-25 in Bahrain (AP)

“Whether it will be enough to close the complete gap, I don’t think so.

“I hope it will help us to be at least closer. It’s still quite a significant step, In Suzuka, that was the gap between Mclaren and ourselves, which is three-tenths. We need to work very hard in order to catch that.

“That’s what we are doing, I’m confident we can close that. Whether what we’re bringing, I don’t think will be enough, but short-term hopefully we have other things which will help us be closer.”

Leclerc will actually step out of the SF-25 car for first practice on Friday, as youngster Dino Beganovic takes to the cockpit as Ferrari complete one of two mandatory rookie practice spots for the season.

Ferrari are currently running fourth in the constructors’ standings, on 35 points and 76 behind McLaren. The Bahrain GP takes place at 4pm (BST) on Sunday afternoon.