Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton are looking to find performance at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix but they could do better to not get in the way of their rivals as they do so
Lewis Hamilton is under investigation by the Formula 1 stewards after leaving two of his rivals upset with his driving. The two incidents happened on Friday at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and saw the Ferrari racer annoy both drivers at Williams.
Hamilton was eighth quickest in FP1, a little over half-a-second off the pace. Carlos Sainz, the man whose place he took at Ferrari this season, was one place ahead with his best lap in the Williams.
But the Spaniard was not too impressed with the Brit’s actions at one point during the session. He came across Hamilton while on a flying lap at one of the many high-speed sections of the track and was clearly rattled when he turned a blind corner to find the slow-moving Ferrari ahead.
And Sainz turned the airwaves blue over the radio as he reported the near miss to his race engineer. “F**k. The Ferrari. Whoa, it’s so dangerous,” he said. “He cannot let me by there. Please, someone tell the Ferrari not to let by people there. It’s so dangerous.”
In commentary on the live Sky Sports coverage, former F1 driver Karun Chandhok said he could understand why Sainz was so upset. “No wonder Carlos Sainz isn’t happy about it,” he said.
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“They’re doing 160mph through that section of the circuit and it just caught him off guard where the Ferrari was dawdling around. The Ferrari did try to get out of the way but I think if you are going to get out of the way of people in that section, you need to go off the track.”
While it wasn’t Hamilton’s finest moment, the seven-time F1 champion need not worry about any consequences as a result of that incident. But the 40-year-old does face a stewards’ investigation after an even closer call in FP2 later in the day, when he got in the way of Alex Albon in the other Williams.
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The British-Thai racer had to take evasive action as he came across Hamilton’s slow-moving Ferrari while on a hot lap during that night session. “F***ing dangerous”, Albon fumed over the radio, and it wasn’t long before it was confirmed that Hamilton would be investigated after the session for impeding another car.
To help Hamilton find his feet in his new colours, Ferrari have brought more upgrades to this weekend’s Jeddah event. The Italians hope the changes they have made to the rear wing of their cars will compliment the major floor updates they made ahead of last weekend’s race in Bahrain.
Though it was hardly a result to write home about, Hamilton did finish fifth in that race which is his best Grand Prix result of the season so far. He has 25 points to show for his efforts so far in 2025, heading into the Saudi Arabia event.
Hamilton was half-a-second off the pace in FP1 on on Friday, eighth on the timesheets which were topped, somewhat surprisingly, by Pierre Gasly in the Alpine. Just 0.007 seconds behind the Frenchman in second place was Lando Norris who is keen to bounce back after a difficult event in Bahrain last weekend.
