Hamilton described his Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as “Horrible”

The news came as a major disappointment for his fans, especially those who are interested in sports betting and had bet on the win of their favorite F1 driver.

Talking about his performance at the Grand Prix, Hamilton said, “Nothing positive to take from today, apart from Charles on the podium, which is great for the team. It was horrible, not enjoyable at all. I was just sliding around. It’s pretty bad."

Hamilton had his hopes high with the early victory for Ferrari in the Chinese Grand Prix sprint race, but his happiness didn’t last long when he was disqualified from the main race 24 hours later. At Saturday’s qualifying session, he had faced a major setback and had joked that he might need a “brain transplant” to get along with the SF-25 car.

He had commented then, “I have just got to keep taking deep breaths. I know that the fans aren’t happy. I’m sure the team is not happy. I know the bosses are not happy. And I’m not happy with my results.”

Vasseur is known to be on good terms with Hamilton, and having been a witness to the driver’s title-winning GP2 ( now F2 ) season, he insists that Hamilton receives full support, emphasizing the “potential” in China and Bahrain.

Talking to the media on Sunday in Jeddah, he had said, “ I am 2000 per cent behind him. I will give him support, and we will start from tomorrow morning to try to find solutions and reasons, and to work on it early in the morning.

"But honestly, I am not too worried. If you have a look at what he did in China or what he did in Bahrain last week, or even in the first part of the session this weekend, the potential is there for sure.”

When Hamilton was asked how he had been excellent in the sprint race in China, he replied, “I don’t have an answer.”

Leclerc, on the other hand, had performed tremendously and had driven with a long first stint on the medium tyres to beat Mercedes’ George Russel for a place on the podium.

He said, “ I feel like we have maximized everything we could have this weekend. There wasn’t anything more in the car. We need to focus on qualifying because it's been a very long time since I haven’t been as happy with the car balance.

"I feel very at ease with the car in a way that I know I can extract the maximum out of the car more often than not, but unfortunately, the car's potential is not good enough to fight for better in qualifying.”

In the constructors’ championship last year and had begun this season with high hopes. But McLaren and Red Bull surpassed the team over the winter.

Piastri of McLaren had bagged the fourth victory in five races at the start of the F1 2025 season in Sunday’s race in Jeddah. Taking the lead in the World Championship was a first for his career and for him.

When Andrea Stella, the McLaren principal, was asked how important it was for Piastri to pass Hamilton after his stop, they said, “You’ve given me the opportunity to actually tell a story. The story is that Lando’s race engineer proactively told Oscar’s race engineer, we struggled to pass Lewis because we attempted twice in Corner 27, and he passed us back in Corner 27, and he passed us back in Corner 1, so make sure that Oscar knows that and he gives it a go directly in Corner 1. I was very proud while on the pit wall to hear that. I didn’t need to prompt anything.”

Commenting on the team’s spirit, they said, “ I was just a spectator to an example of the great team’s spirit and teamwork that we have at McLaren, so well done to Will Joseph, well done to Tom Stallard, well done to the team of people.”

Talking about the Ferrari team’s status, Leclerc said, “We are close on the race pace. Free air dictates a little bit who is going to win the race. That’s always been the case. Maybe this year a little bit more than the others. And obviously, when that is the case, qualifying is more important.

"But unfortunately, for two years, we have been just struggling to qualify to put everything together. The problem is it's not always the same issue. This time it was four tenths in the first three corners. For the rest of the lap, we were fast, and now today in the race, actually, the first sector was the best sector we had.

"So obviously, we’ve got to look at that Obviously, there are answers in what we are doing, and we are doing something wrong. We are not looking at it too much, but 50 points is a big number. I don’t want to be losing more points than that in the next few races," added Ferrari driver Leclerc.