Lewis Hamilton was seventh at Suzuka as his early season struggles in grands prix continues at Ferrari.

Lewis Hamilton has revealed his Ferrari SF-25 is currently carrying a major problem he feels is costing him performance.

So far in grands prix against Charles Leclerc, he is 0-2. He also finished behind the Monégasque in China before both cars were disqualified. He did, however, secure a sprint victory at the Shanghai International Circuit after claiming pole position.

Hamilton is also about two-tenths of a second slower on average than Leclerc in qualifying as he battles to get up to speed with the new Ferrari systems and characteristics following his switch from Mercedes.

After finishing 13 seconds and three positions behind fourth-placed Leclerc at Suzuka, Hamilton revealed he has a major problem with his car.

Although he did not go into specifics, the seven-time F1 champion indicated that Ferrari is already preparing an upgrade package for Bahrain to ease the problem.

“I did the best I could, we are generally lacking performance compared to the cars ahead, the Mercedes, the McLaren and obviously the Red Bull,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1. 

“We’ve found something on the car that has been underperforming for the last three races, so I am really hoping once that is fixed, I can do better results.

“But I am losing just over a tenth per lap with the issue that we have so I am hoping for the next race it is fixed. Obviously qualifying is really important, but I have just not been able to get the best out of the tyres, so something is going on.

“The team are aware of it and they don’t know what has caused it, they don’t know why, but hopefully when the new component comes, it will be gone and it’ll be the same across both cars.

“Considering that, I’m relatively happy with my race, considering what I had.”