Lewis Hamilton has revealed that a component of his Ferrari SF-25 has been identified as “underperforming,” which will be addressed on his car.

The seven-time world champion finished seventh in the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday, while his teammate Charles Leclerc finished fourth.

Lewis Hamilton reveals ‘underperforming’ Ferrari part will be fixed

Aside from his comfortable sprint victory in China, Hamilton has finished behind Leclerc in all three of Ferrari’s Grands Prix so far, with Leclerc driving a somewhat lonely race behind podium finishers Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri at Suzuka.

In a race with little overtaking on track, Hamilton overtook Isack Hadjar to finish 7th, behind the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.

After the checkered flag, Hamilton revealed that part of his car had not been up to scratch in the first three races, telling Sky F1: “I really hope that when this problem is sorted out, I will start to get better results.”

Speaking separately to reporters gathered at Suzuka, he explained that the speed he had in his Ferrari was all he could extract that day.

“I’m happy to have improved,” Hamilton said after the race.

I really hope the next race will see some positive changes. In the first three races, there was a slight deficit between the two teams, on one element of the car, so on my side, something underperformed.

That’s good to know. With what I had, it was the best result I could get.

“My pace, I think, considering that, as I said, I was at my maximum today. I had nothing else in the car.

“We have some underperformance at the back of the car this weekend, and obviously qualifying position is key.

“I think I probably would have been overtaken by the Mercedes if I had gone further back, and hopefully in the next race we can get a bit closer.”

With a short lead-up to next weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, Hamilton has moved Ferrari into fourth place in the current pecking order behind McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull.

He acknowledged that there would be “progress” on the car, but did not confirm whether or not the SF-25 would receive upgrades in Sakhir.

Asked about the team’s prospects next weekend, he said: “It will definitely be interesting. I just hope we’re a little bit closer.”

“I think we’re probably fourth fastest, clearly, at the moment, and I think we’re a little bit behind the others in terms of performance and downforce levels, so we’ve got some work to do to close the gap.

We will gradually improve the car. It will be interesting to see how the drivers benefit from the improvements throughout the season.

“We have a lot of work to do to close the gap to the top cars, the top drivers. They’re probably three or four tenths ahead of us, so we have a lot of work to do to make improvements.”