Lewis Hamilton gives eye-catching Ferrari interview as Brit can end qualifying misery

'knows what to search for' to improve his qualifying woes after a challenging weekend. The seven-time world champion's Saturday struggles have carried over after leaving Mercedes for Ferrari, but the Brit believes he is closer to unlocking his speed. On the surface, the Bahrain GP was a continuation of the 40-year-old's struggles since swapping Brackley for Maranello.

Aside from a breakthrough moment in the sprint race in Shanghai, the Brit has failed to match the pace of team-mate Charles Leclerc. This was the case again at the Sakhir International Circuit. Hamilton qualified a lowly ninth on Saturday, and despite passing Max Verstappen, Kimi Antonelli and Pierre Gasly on his way to a P5 finish, he was still a long way behind the blistering pace set by Leclerc.

Despite this, Hamilton feels as though he has taken a step forward. The seven-time world champion was even optimistic that the knowledge he has acquired in Bahrain could be the key to ending his qualifying misery.

"Yeah, no, I learnt a lot today," Hamilton explained. "And as you saw, that middle stint, I was really in line with the car, and in that moment I had the pace, and I was moving forward. I needed that at the beginning and the end, and I need it in qualifying, so I know what to search for now."

Ferrari introduced a new floor onto their SF-25 machine at the Sakhir International Circuit, and both Hamilton and Leclerc believed that the new component boosted performance and brought them closer to the McLaren and Mercedes drivers.

Along with the upgrades to the car, Hamilton is having to change his driving style to extract performance from his new machine. "The car is sometimes quite hard to drive, and I'm really working hard to adapt my driving style, so that's really what I've got to do," the veteran Brit explained.

"Also get the set-up where I need it, we got a much better set-up where I moved to where Charles was and he didn't move away from that all weekend. I think just getting the confidence in that and then adjusting the driving style to it. But the team did a great job with the pit stops today and the strategy."

Following Red Bull's miserable performance in Bahrain, Ferrari have reduced the gap to Christian Horner's organisation to 14 points heading into the final leg of this early-season triple header. Hamilton and Leclerc will look to inflict more damage in Saudi Arabia next weekend.