Martin Brundle responds to excuses for Lewis Hamilton struggles - 'I don't buy that'

Martin Brundle does not accept that is struggling at just because he needs time to adapt to his new car. It has been a difficult first few races with the team as the seven-time champion has generally lacked pace.

The exception was in the sprint race at the last month. Hamilton found a setup that worked for him and he took full advantage, qualifying on pole for that short-form race and turning it into .

Other than that, though, there has been little for the Brit to smile about and the was another forgettable event. , unable to make progress while team-mate finished third to record Ferrari's first podium of 2025.

Team principal was keen to protect his driver and said: "It was a bit up and down. It was not that he was always off the pace, but let me discuss it with him first. Perhaps it is his confidence with the car, and perhaps with himself also as everything is new."

The Frenchman referred to a common theory that the root cause of Hamilton's struggles is his car and that he is finding it tough to adapt to Ferrari machinery. While it almost certainly is a factor, finds it tough to believe that it is the sole reason.

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"Fred summed it up, it was a bit up and down," he said on the broadcast after the conclusion of the Jeddah race. "He ended up 31 seconds behind Charles Leclerc, his team-mate. He had some traffic because he was further down the grid so we can take some off for that, but it was up and down.

"I struggle to buy into, 'He doesn't understand the car, it's a new car'. We are knocking on the door of May and they had all the pre-season stuff. I just think that Lewis hasn't gelled with this car and I don't think he's going the right way on the setup.

"From what I've heard from people at , Lewis liked the car a certain way and he obviously can't get the car there, where he needs it. It's difficult days."

Colleague , who was leading the conversation, attempted to offer a defence of Hamilton by saying it must be tough for the Brit to get used to how things work at Ferrari after so many years racing for Mercedes and spending his whole F1 career before now driving cars powered by engines made by the Silver Arrows.

But, in response, Brundle pointed out two examples of much younger and far less experienced racer adapting to their new surroundings a whole lot faster. He added: "It took a day here last year [in a substitute appearance for Ferrari], but then he wasn't relearning a car, he was just getting in and learning a car.

"[Kimi] Antonelli has got used to working with Bono [Hamilton's former Mercedes race engineer Peter Bonnington] quite quickly and working with that car, but he did a lot of testing last year. But I struggle to buy into that, honestly, but we know Lewis is better and Lewis is faster than that. So something is not working there."