Ferrari already have Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc problem but also a solution

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Speaking to Mirror Sport, Sky Sports F1 pundit Karun Chandhok said he thinks Lewis Hamilton will find it tough to rediscover his qualifying form up against Charles Leclerc at Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton faces “a massive challenge” to regain his shattered qualifying confidence even when he begins his new adventure with Ferrari.

The seven-time F1 champion is one of the best qualifiers the sport has ever seen and holds the record for most pole positions won. But this season he has struggled for one-lap pace and has been comprehensively beaten by Mercedes team-mate George Russell.

The younger Brit has outqualified his compatriot 20 times in 2024 across Grands Prix and Sprints, while Hamilton has only secured a higher grid slot than Russell on six occasions. At Monza in September, after he qualified sixth, the 39-year-old said qualifying has become his “weakness” and claimed he is “not very good” at it.

For Karun Chandhok, rebuilding that confidence over one lap will be Ferrari’s biggest challenge when the Brit joins next year. And the Sky Sports F1 pundit told Mirror Sport he believes it will be even tougher for Hamilton when up against who he believes is the best qualifier in the sport.

Chandhok said: “It is going to be a massive challenge for him. Charles, I have often said, is the best qualifier, fastest over one lap on the current grid, I believe. In 2026, we do not know what the cars are going to be like. Maybe Ferrari are going to be so dominant that you can be three tenths behind and still be on the front row. It could happen.

“But for ‘25, I think Lewis and Ferrari are going to have to work quite hard to rediscover their qualifying form and build up that confidence again for him. He has certainly got to dig deep and find the answer.”

Hamilton turns 40 in January and will make his debut for Ferrari more than two months later when the season begins with the Australian Grand Prix. Before then, Chandhok believes the Italians are doing the right thing with their plan to use of their Fiorano test track and put their new star to work long before he faces another competitive qualifying session.

He added: “If I was Ferrari, I would be planning for him to do a bunch of testing with a two-year-old car through January, February, to just build up the rapport between the team and him. They are in a luxurious position of having an infinite amount of money, they own two tracks which they can go testing at for as long as they want and basically lock the gates so they can do it in private and do whatever programme they want.

“There is a driver coming who is just down on confidence – he has not forgotten how to drive, we have seen in Silverstone and Spa that the magic is still there. They just need to find ways to rebuild his confidence and the best way to do that is to just take him away from the public high-pressure environment, go to private test days and try to experiment and pound around and around and around, get him comfortable.

“It is a new team, new people, new environment, his first time not with the British team. Just try to get him into a comfort zone with everyone around, so that when you then plonk him into the qualifying situation in Melbourne, it all just flows a bit more naturally.”

Karun Chandhok spoke to Mirror Sport via Betway.