Lewis Hamilton is hopeful an upgraded floor can enable Ferrari to “take a step” forward at the Bahrain Grand Prix this weekend.

The seven-time world champion has endured a frustrating start to his first campaign with the Italian team, who have fallen well short of their pre-season billing as title contenders.

While Hamilton won the Chinese Grand Prix Sprint, his results over full race distance across the first three rounds have been hugely underwhelming, with seventh place last weekend in Japan his best result so far, following a disqualification in China and 10th in Australia.

Hamilton told Sky Sports F1: “We’ve got an upgrade this weekend so I’m excited that hopefully we should have a bit more downforce.

“I’m not really feeling a huge amount of issues, just a lack of overall performance pace-wise, which we can hopefully take a step [forward] this weekend.”

This weekend sees Formula 1 return to the scene of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit, which is another element that Hamilton hopes can lead to an upturn in Ferrari’s performance.

He added: “I’ve done quite a bit of driving since the test that we had here, so I should be a lot more comfortable in the car than I was through testing here.

“We’ve got an upgrade, we’ve got a better understanding of the set-up, so hopefully it should bode well for a better weekend.”

Despite being hopeful of improvement, Hamilton is not expecting the new parts to put Ferrari on equal terms with early front-runners McLaren.

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri shared a win each over the first two races, before they were upset by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in Japan as the reigning world champion defied an apparent car performance deficit to beat the McLarens.

Hamilton’s former team Mercedes, who he left after 12 seasons to join Ferrari, have also started the season far more impressively than the Italian team.

“We’re trying to figure out how to catch McLaren,” Hamilton said.

“They’ve obviously got a great car. They won the Constructors’ Championship last year, they’ve started off pretty well this this year, as have the other two top teams.

“I think we’ve learned a lot over the past few races. and I think hopefully this weekend it’s a step forward for us.

“It’s not necessarily closing the gap, but it should be going towards closing the gap. It’s not closing the gap completely, but if we can extract more from the car, which is what we’re trying to work on, hopefully we can see better results.”

Leclerc hopes heat can help Ferrari after ‘step back’

Hamilton’s team-mate Charles Leclerc is hopeful the searing hot conditions in Bahrain this weekend can provide Ferrari with additional assistance.

Asked whether Ferrari were likely to benefit from the high temperatures, which are forecast to be around 35 degrees Celsius over the weekend, Leclerc said: “I don’t think there are any clear indications that this could be the case. I think it’s an unknown though.

“In the past, if anything, we were a bit stronger when it was warm, so that might be one indication. But apart from that, not so much. So I think it’s a question mark.

“I hope that is the case, because obviously the first part of the season, these first races have been worse than expected, and we really hope that we can be back up to fight at the front with the McLarens. So, I hope the warm weather will help us.”

Leclerc fared slightly better than Hamilton in Japan as he finished fourth, but was unable to keep touch with the top three of Verstappen and the McLarens.

The Monegasque had a very strong second half to his 2024 season, finishing in the top five in each of the final 12 races, including two victories and six further podiums.

It was that form that led many to consider Ferrari the most likely challengers to McLaren this year, but Leclerc admits the team have taken a relative “step back”.

He said: “I’m speaking more about the expectations when you ended the year that we finished last year, where we are in a good momentum with the team that you know that you’ve got a good car, then obviously the expectations of what you are trying to target, at least as a team, is to at least start from there and try and improve.

“So on that, we were a little bit disappointed to see that we had done a step back at the beginning of this year.

“There’s a lot of work in the background, obviously. I think that the last weekend has been more or less where we are as a team, where we stand as a team. We’ve got few new parts here, which I hope will help us to close that gap a little bit.”

Sky Sports F1’s Bahrain GP Schedule

Friday April 11

• 8.50am: F3 Practice
• 10am: F2 Practice
• 12pm: Bahrain GP Practice One (session starts at 12.30pm)*
• 1.55pm: F3 Qualifying
• 2.40pm: F2 Qualifying
• 3.35pm: Bahrain GP Practice Two (session starts at 4pm)
• 5.15pm: The F1 Show

Saturday April 12

• 11.10am: F3 Sprint Race
• 1.15pm: Bahrain GP Practice Three (session starts at 1.30pm)
• 3.10pm: F2 Sprint
• 4.10pm: Bahrain GP Qualifying build-up
• 5pm: BAHRAIN GP QUALIFYING
• 7pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook

Sunday April 13

• 10.50am: F3 Feature Race
• 12.20pm: F2 Feature Race
• 2.30pm: Bahrain GP build-up: Grand Prix Sunday
• 4pm: THE BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX
• 6pm: Bahrain GP reaction: Chequered Flag
• 7pm: Ted’s Notebook

*also live on Sky Sports Main Event

Formula 1 continues its triple-header in Sakhir at the Bahrain Grand Prix this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – No contract, cancel anytime