James Vowles, Williams' team boss and Mercedes' former chief strategist, finds Lewis Hamilton's double Q1 exit in Qatar odd, since he's usually on the pace.

Hamilton's first Ferrari season has been inconsistent, with progress often followed by setbacks. Lately, it's been more of the latter.

Hamilton's Qualifying Struggles in Qatar

After a possible breakthrough with his SF-25 from Singapore to Mexico, even achieving a season-best P3 qualifying in Mexico, he fell outside the top ten again in Sao Paulo, placing 13th, and then was eliminated in Q1 in Las Vegas.

In Sin City, the seven-time world champion was slowest, missing a Q2 spot by over two seconds.

His qualifying didn't improve in Qatar, where he was knocked out of SQ1 with the 18th fastest time, repeating this in qualifying. He was three-tenths off P15 in both sessions.

Hamilton said the car felt good, but the times didn't reflect it.

Vowles, who was important to Hamilton's six world titles with Mercedes, said he found Hamilton's lack of pace strange.

I think he's been on the pace normally, so, strangely, he's this far back, Vowles told Sky F1. Of course, we don't like to see that.”

According to Karun Chandhok, a former F1 driver, it's about car confidence, which Hamilton lacked in Qatar qualifying.

He didn't seem confident or have the grip to push. Here, through Turns 3 and 4, you can hear him hesitate on the throttle. "It's like multiple stabs," he said on SkyPad.

He's not confident enough to just go through and hit the throttle where he wants. At the Turn 6 hairpin, he's losing lap time. A bit of oversteer cost him another tenth on his final run.

Turn 15 is another place where he lost time. He couldn't carry the minimum speed.

Most drivers are just partially lifting through Turn 15. Hamilton's really coming off the throttle. It's frustrating for him.

Could Hamilton End His F1 Career?

His ongoing struggles have raised the question of retirement.

Could Hamilton, with seven world titles, 105 Grand Prix wins, and 104 pole positions, end his F1 career after failing to pass Q1?

Juan Pablo Montoya says no.

"I think Lewis is frustrated," Montoya told F1TV.

I think he's venting. He was composed at the start of the year when he wasn't running well, and people were questioning him.

I think he got to a point where he said, 'I don't care. I'm just going to say how frustrated I am.' I think he still wants to do the job.

In Brazil, he was doing well. If Charles hadn't spun, he would have outqualified him.

So yes, he's still missing pace in the race. I don't think it's the easiest car to drive, and he doesn't need to prove anything, but he loves racing.

So, he's not happy, but he doesn't want to quit now. I think he wants to prove he can still do it.”

Hamilton's contract with Ferrari goes until the F1 2026 season, when Formula 1 will have brand-name cars and engines. The sport will use active aerodynamics with moveable front and rear wings and will also go into a 50/50 split between combustion and electric power.

There have been talks suggesting that F1 could become a thinking man’s game, and that could help Hamilton.

Williams’ Carlos Sainz shared that an experiment that took three months to pay off helped him perform well in the Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix qualifying.

In his first season racing with Williams, Sainz has shown his skill a few times. But the team based in Grove had some problems with its FW47 after the race in Hungary earlier this year.

After Sainz’s “very solid” qualifying performance, the team said they had been experimenting before the race at the Losail International Circuit.

Sainz gave credit to his team, who tried hard to turn flashes of brilliance into steady speed, which let Sainz and Albon compete with their main rivals.

“Yes, we took another step forward in qualifying, and it seemed to move things in a good way,” Sainz told Sky Sports F1.

“Overall, I'm just happy with how the weekend is going so far. We've been steady, got a point in the sprint, and now we're in a better spot for qualifying, in the top seven going into the race.”

Sainz’s good result was another success with Williams. The qualifying performance was based on Sainz’s ability to push as hard as he could.

After qualifying, Sainz thought he had reached the FW47's limit, with a few laps that showed how confident he was with the new setup they were testing.

“I did three good laps in qualifying. I hit 20.2 in Q2, and I felt like I just couldn’t go any faster than that. It felt like that was the most the car could do,” Sainz told the media, including Motorsport Week.

“In Q3, even with the plastic scare and some damage to the car that had to be fixed, I don’t know if I had damage still. But after that issue, I still managed to hit 20.2 and get P7, so I’ll take it. We’re in a good spot.”

What was the Sainz-Williams Qatar experiment?

The 31-year-old said after qualifying that the idea for his Qatar setup came months earlier. After a tough time in Budapest, Sainz insisted that the team could improve. Sainz told his team that the “off-weekend” should be a chance to learn instead of just trying to get better quickly.

“Yes, I’ve been pushing since Budapest,” Sainz said.

“We had a bad weekend at this kind of track corner, so I said, let’s use this year to learn and try something in Qatar, because we expected to struggle in Qatar. It should be a tough weekend for us.”

Instead of avoiding a track that was known for showing weaknesses, Sainz accepted the challenge. Sainz brought his ideas from simulator testing, and the team added other ideas.

“So let’s put a plan together and test it,” he said.

“I had some ideas in the simulator that I wanted to try. The team had other ideas, so we put them all together, went to the simulator, tested the car, and that gave us what we thought could be a good starting point for the weekend to give it a shot.”

From Friday’s practice session, the progress was obvious. Sainz said that the new experiment not only gave them a good qualifying performance but also helped them learn more about the FW47.

“And it was working well right away this weekend, which has given us a good sense of what’s going on, good learning, and confidence. The team needs to do these kinds of tests and see them work.”