Johnny Herbert believes Lewis Hamilton is on a “very slow journey” towards being competitive against Charles Leclerc at Ferrari.
Hamilton, 40, is yet to finish on the podium after 16 races at the Scuderia, with a best grand prix result of fourth in addition to his sprint race win in China back in March.
Leclerc, meanwhile, has finished on the podium five times this year and recorded a pole position in Hungary in July.
While Leclerc is in his seventh season at Ferrari, Hamilton has found the adaptation difficult in his first campaign in red, but did show signs of promise at the last race in Monza, when he finished sixth after starting 10th on the grid.
“Lewis was a bit better, he's more competitive, he's closer,” three-time race winner Herbert said. “But it's still Charles that’s getting that slight edge out of the car and he's still the one that Lewis is finding difficult to beat.
“It has improved a little bit. It's a very slow journey before Lewis can be considered fully competitive against Charles.
“The car is not the best car for sure, but Charles is able to dig a little bit deeper and is able to get some decent results out of it.”
Hamilton has cast doubt over whether he could finish on the podium in the last eight races of the season, with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku next up this weekend.
Qualifying in particular has been a struggle for Hamilton – Leclerc leads their head-to-head 12-4, with George Russell also dominating his teammate at his last season at Mercedes in 2024.
“Lewis is always having issues or being in the wrong place at the wrong time and that's because the performances in qualifying probably aren't putting him further up the pack,” Herbert said, in quotes in association with Adventure Gamers. “When he has his qualifying, he's in the wrong part of the pack and then he gets himself into racing difficulties and strategy difficulties.
“That’s part of making sure that you get it right when you go into qualifying. It's a consistent theme at the present time. Ferrari are still on a very long curve.
“That curve needs to tighten up just to get themselves in a position where they can start to compete consistently for those podiums and, importantly, those race wins which are the name of the game.”
