Lewis Hamilton Concedes Ex-F1 Team Mercedes Are 'Faster' Than Ferrari After Disappointing Japanese GP 2025

Lewis Hamilton has made a slow start to his Formula 1 career in Ferrari and that continued at the Japanese GP 2025 after he could only manage a lowly seventh-place finish in the latest round of the F1 championship. And in a rather shocking admission, he believes his former team Mercedes are much faster. 

The revelation is a surprising one given he left Mercedes because he felt Ferrari would offer him a better chance of winning an elusive 8th world driver's championship. 

But after struggling behind the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, he was forced to concede that they are a few steps ahead of where his current team are. 

"Mercedes are faster than us, which is why you saw them so close to Charles Leclerc. They just have more pace than us at the moment. When I was behind him [Kimi Antonelli], he was just so much quicker through certain parts of the circuit - I couldn't follow," he said.

Would Better Qualifying Have Helped? 

It is worth noting that Suzuka is always a tough track on which to overtake, and it wasn't just Lewis Hamilton who struggled - even McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were unable to surpass eventual race winner Max Verstappen largely due to the aerodynamic challenges present and ‘dirty air’ making overtakes tough. 

ALSO READ | Lando Norris Questions McLaren's Strategy After Max Verstappen Romps Home to Victory in Japanese GP 2025

But Hamilton admitted that even a better qualifying run on Saturday would not have done him much good. 

"I was [at my] maximum today. I didn't have anything else in the car. With the kind of performance happening at the rear of the car this weekend, qualifying position was key. I think I probably would have been overtaken by the Mercedes if I was any further," he said.

Ferrari Eye Redemption

The Scuderia are a distant fourth in the constructor's championship - behind McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull. 

But they will hope to do better in the upcoming double-header race weeks that are set to follow Japan. 

The championship heads to Bahrain in the coming week and will race at Saudi Arabia the weekend after.