Lewis Hamilton openly expressed his frustration over Ferrari brake issues which he described as “a lottery” after struggling throughout Friday’s Formula 1 Imola GP practice.
The seven-time world champion who made the high-profile switch from Mercedes to Ferrari for the 2025 F1 season experienced a troubled start to the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix as Friday’s practice brought to light a persistent and deeply frustrating technical issue on the SF25.
The Imola weekend began with a glimmer of optimism for Lewis Hamilton who posted the fifth fastest in opening practice, just a tenth behind the leading McLarens. He expressed genuine satisfaction with the car’s balance and performance, noting that it felt like the team had made a meaningful step forward.
The positive start, however, was quickly undone in the second Imola GP practice where Hamilton’s fortunes took a dramatic turn for the worse.
After making what he described as “two of the tiniest changes” to the car – adjustments so minor that they should have had almost no effect – the British driver found himself battling severe Ferrari brake issues that left him only 11th on the timesheets.
The sudden drop in performance was both perplexing and demoralizing, especially given the minimal nature of the setup tweaks and his frustration was evident both in his post-session interviews and in his radio communications with the Ferrari garage.
“These damn brakes, mate! Ugh,“ Hamilton lamented over the team radio. “These brakes are a problem.”
Charles Leclerc echoed the sentiments of his teammate, describing the brakes in warm-up mode as “horrendous” and complained that the car simply “is not braking.” Both drivers experienced off-track moments during the first practice – a clear indication of severe Ferrari brake issues.
What makes the situation particularly galling for Hamilton is the unpredictable nature of the problem. He explained that the issue is not related to his adaptation to Ferrari’s Brembo brakes as opposed to the Carbon Industrie brakes he used at Mercedes, but rather to the performance of the braking system itself.
“It’s not the transition, it’s the performance,” Hamilton said after Friday’s practice. “It’s a lottery, we’ll roll the dice and you put one [pad] on and it works and put another on and it doesn’t.
“I hope tomorrow we figure something out, we’re working on it for sure.”
This unpredictability has been a recurring theme throughout the season, with Hamilton revealing that brake issues have been a significant problem “all year” since his arrival at Ferrari.
Despite the team’s efforts to address the matter, a consistent solution has remained elusive. The impact of this technical gremlin has been profound, undermining both qualifying and race pace and making it difficult for the team to extract the maximum potential from the SF-25 chassis.
“I was really happy with the car in FP1, it felt like we’d made a step forward and was feeling really positive,” he added.
“I literally changed two of the tiniest things that shouldn’t have had barely any effect at all, the smallest change we’ve probably done this year and we had some brake issues that then made a massive difference so that was then a fight with that.
“That’s been quite a big issue all year actually.”
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The timing of these troubles could not be more unfortunate for Ferrari. The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola is one of the most important events on the calendar for the Italian team, with the passionate Tifosi expecting a strong showing on home soil.
After signing a driver of Hamilton’s caliber, hopes were high that the Maranello based outfit could challenge for victories and close the gap to their main rivals, Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren. However, the reality has been more sobering.
After six races, Ferrari sits fourth in the constructors’ standings with 94 points-behind all three of their major rivals.
