Lewis Hamilton power loss at Suzuka prompts Ferrari probe

Lewis Hamilton finished sixth at Suzuka after a confusing loss of energy and straight-line power that left him exposed in battle and asking Ferrari to "get to the bottom" of the issue.

The Ferrari driver started sixth and gained track position when an early safety car opened a window for a cheap pit stop. The timing lifted him into clean air and he climbed to fourth as the race reset. The boost did not last. As the laps went on, Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Lando Norris all found a way past, and Hamilton fell back to P6 at the flag.

Hamilton said the day turned into defense rather than attack. He felt the car could not hold rivals on the straights even when his tire management was under control. He said other drivers "seemed to have more power" and that he needs answers on whether the shortfall came from the internal combustion engine or from the hybrid system’s energy deployment.

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur accepted there was a deficit in a straight line. He pointed to how Hamilton’s battery usage and overtake tools work in traffic and in clean air. Once Hamilton drifted more than a second behind the car ahead, Vasseur said he lost access to extra overtake boost for longer stretches. That made it harder to stay in the slipstream and limited options to counter attacks or set up moves of his own. The pattern matched what played out against Leclerc, Russell and Norris, who all carried more momentum past the Ferrari on the main straights.

Hamilton linked the loss of pace to energy deployment behavior under the current regulations at Suzuka. He also raised how different teams run the same engine package. He warned that McLaren appears to extract more from the Mercedes power unit than Ferrari could match in this race scenario. That comparison tracked with what he felt in the cockpit when trying to hang on through the high-speed sections before the back straight and into 130R. He referenced oversteer moments connected to how the car harvested and deployed energy through the lap, which made it harder to keep the battery strategy in its optimal window while maintaining balance.

The timing of the safety car put Hamilton in a position to fight for fourth, but the underlying pace gap on the straights told in the second half. His tire life held up well enough for consistent lap times in the corners. The Ferrari looked stable through sector one and the Degner curves. Yet the hybrid deployment profile and long full-throttle runs exposed the shortfall. When he dropped out of slipstream range, the car’s available electrical assistance did not cover the gap. Rivals could open their stints and complete passes with less resistance, which left Hamilton stuck managing temperatures and battery targets rather than pushing to close back in.

Vasseur said Ferrari will run a full review across the opening rounds to understand why the straight-line and energy metrics did not align with expectations at Suzuka. The team will study Hamilton’s usage maps, battery state of charge patterns, and how traffic influenced recovery and deployment. That work aims to confirm whether the issue sits with calibration, energy allocation per lap, or a broader engine performance window. Ferrari plans updates to procedures and settings to restore overtake effectiveness and protect race pace on long straights before the next event.