Lewis Hamilton came close to his first podium finish for Ferrari in the 2025 F1 British Grand Prix, yet fell just short as Sauber star Nico Hulkenberg took his debut rostrum.

The 40-year-old’s wait for his maiden podium as a Ferrari driver continued at Silverstone last Sunday, as Hamilton also saw his streak of rostrums at the British GP end. The seven-time F1 champion had made every podium at his home track since 2014, including taking eight wins.

A margin of 5.070 seconds ultimately separated Hamilton from securing his first podium as a Ferrari driver, as Hulkenberg took his first podium in 239 Grand Prix starts at Silverstone. The Sauber pilot capitalised on the wet-dry conditions to climb from 19th on the grid up to third.

Hamilton lamented Ferrari’s balance problems during the British GP as he struggled with the SF-25 at low speed. The Stevenage native even dubbed Ferrari’s car for the 2025 F1 season ‘the most difficult car’ that he had driven at Silverstone in years having burned his tyres out.

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Fernando Alonso’s slick tyre pace tricked Ferrari into pitting Lewis Hamilton in the British GP

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur concedes the Scuderia also messed up Hamilton’s hopes for a podium finish in the British GP by calling the home hero in early for both of his pit stops. Hamilton pitted on Lap 11 of 52 to take a new set of intermediates and on L41 to fit the softs.

Vasseur especially regrets the timing of Hamilton’s pit stop to switch from inters to the soft C4 tyres, having been caught out by the pace of Aston Martin ace Fernando Alonso after he fitted the medium C3 compound. Alonso had swapped onto the slick Pirelli tyres on Lap 37.

“You could say the stop was probably a lap too early,” Vasseur acknowledged, via quotes by SPEEDWEEK: “He made a mistake in Turns 3 and 4, and lost four or five seconds.

“But I think it was Alonso who had already pitted, and he was already faster in some corners than all the other drivers who were still on intermediates. And it’s easy to say afterwards that the first stop should have been one lap earlier and the second one lap later.

“It’s very difficult to decide when to pit because you always have to make assumptions. To make matters worse, we had also lost Lewis’ GPS. So, we were completely blind and didn’t know exactly where the car was. That was very tricky.”

Lewis Hamilton likely lost a podium due to the timing of Ferrari’s pit stops at Silverstone

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Hamilton lost out at both of his pit stops, which was ultimately the difference at Silverstone between the home hero reaching the podium and finishing the British GP 5.070s away from Hulkenberg. He fell from P4 to P7 at his first stop, and did not instantly fire his slick tyres up.

Ferrari saw Hamilton sail straight on at Village after leaving the pit lane on slick tyres on L41, which, as Vasseur notes, let Hulkenberg edge away. Teammate Charles Leclerc also flew by Hamilton, with the Monegasque still on intermediate tyres, as the Briton fought for any grip.

Alonso had been the first driver to switch onto dry tyres after the mid-race rain shower last Sunday. And while Mercedes star George Russell spun with his hard tyres, the Aston Martin ace was able to fire his dry rubber up enough to tempt Ferrari to make the change to slicks.

The Scuderia’s strategy was not the first hurdle that Hamilton had to overcome to battle for a podium in the British GP, either. Ferrari’s Q3 engine mode did not deliver like it should for Hamilton at Silverstone, which meant he only qualified in P5 having set the pace during Q2.