After struggling in Barcelona, seven-time Formula 1 winner Lewis Hamilton experienced a late problem with his Ferrari during this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.
The legendary racer appeared strong in Friday morning’s FP1, but by the afternoon, he was falling far behind teammate Charles Leclerc. This pattern persisted throughout Saturday’s final practice session.
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Hamilton only managed ninth fastest in FP3, while the Monegasque star was among the top three fastest drivers.
Just as the session had concluded, the 40-year-old faced a gearbox issue with his SF-25.
Taking to team radio at the end of Saturday’s final practice session, Hamilton said: “Downshift’s not working properly mate. Something’s wrong with the gear shift.”
His Ferrari race engineer Riccardo Adami then responded, confirming the team would take a look.
Ferrari face troubling Hamilton issue at Spanish GP
Discussing the troubling situation on Sky, Anthony Davidson commented: “It’s odd that you can’t downshift especially this late in the session, that’s worrying times for Ferrari.”
When asked by David Croft if the error could signify a software issue for the Scuderia, former F1 driver Davidson responded: “Well I think he made a change on the steering wheel before he went for the downshift again, but he’s still trundling around very slowly.
“Maybe he had to fare the sensor and then that allowed him to get the shift back but I definitely heard the gearshift go in on the left-hand paddle, that’s your downshift.”
“It does sound incredibly clunky,” he added before the broadcasting duo debated cautiously of Ferrari’s likelihood of replacing Hamilton’s gearbox as the team battles a race against time with the vital qualifying for Sunday’s main event taking place at 4pm local time (CEST) later today (Saturday, May 31).
As the Sky commentary team pondered their options with such a short gap between Saturday’s sessions, Croft suggested: “Well as you don’t get a penalty… we’ve got two hours, forget about trying to fix it just strap in a new gearbox for the session, we’ll investigate the problem next week. That might be the better [option] but it is a race against time.”
Since Ferrari is only one point behind Red Bull, who are in third place in the constructors’ standings going into the ninth round of the 2025 season, every point counts in Barcelona as the European tripleheader comes to a finish this weekend.
The Scuderia should have little trouble passing Red Bull in Spain because they have a superior driver tandem than Christian Horner’s outfit, but if Hamilton’s problem had continued, it might have hurt their hopes of qualifying.
But after the little hiccup, the problem seemed to resolve itself, and Hamilton was free to go back for qualifying.
