Ferrari handed damning verdict by former F1 driver

Former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer has labelled Ferrari as the most disappointing team on the grid so far this season.

The Italian squad entered the campaign boosted by the arrival of four-time champion Lewis Hamilton, who joined the Scuderia following a highly successful period with Mercedes.

However, Ferrari has largely struggled for form across the opening six rounds, bagging just a single podium result in that time.

Charles Leclerc secured third in Jeddah and has largely had the upper hand over Hamilton so far.

After narrowly missing out on winning the constructors' championship last year, Palmer expressed his dissatisfaction with Ferrari's current form.

“In my view, Ferrari has been the most disappointing team so far, having finished 2024 so strongly,” he told F1.com.

“With the signing of Hamilton, this should have been a glory year for them, and we saw a glimpse of that early on in China, when Lewis was happier with the car and took the sprint win, and the team were competitive.”

Hamilton process ongoing

Aside from his sprint victory in Shanghai, Hamilton has had little to cheer in his first six races with Ferrari.

As Hamilton sought a fresh start at the sport's most successful team, Palmer has suggested his struggles have carried over from Mercedes, where he ran into difficulties in his final years.

“Hamilton is a driver who has struggled with snappy rear instability for the last couple of seasons,” Palmer added.

“It was this inconsistency that he was struggling with in the Mercedes last year and that trend seems to have followed him to Ferrari so far too.

“He generally likes to attack the corners with high entry speed, but needs a stable rear end to do that effectively, and we saw him trying to rework his driving style in Melbourne to get more out of this car.

“Clearly that process is still ongoing, as is trying to find the right rhythm with his race engineer Riccardo Adami – and these are all teething problems that I doubt both team and driver were expecting to still be issues this far into the season.”