Lewis Hamilton admits pain as Ferrari 'can't match' F1 rivals in glum verdict

Lewis Hamilton doubts his chances of standing on the podium before the end of his difficult debut Ferrari season. His Scuderia career began with promise as he won the Sprint race in China back in March but his best Grand Prix result remains fourth place.

His forgettable recent form continued in Singapore on Sunday when he finished eighth, having dropped one place with a post-race penalty. Team-mate Charles Leclerc was sixth and has also struggled in recent weeks. Ferrari have slipped behind Mercedes to third in the standings as a result and also have Red Bull breathing down their necks, just eight points behind.

And a worried Hamilton said: "I feel pain for all the team, from catering to marketing to the guys in the garage and engineers who show up every weekend and they really do give absolutely everything.

"But the car we have, it's just not at the level of the guys ahead of us, particularly as they've had some upgrades and we can't match them. We're on a knife edge trying to get as close as we can."

The seven-time World champion, 40, was frustrated on Saturday over what he felt was a strategy mistake in qualifying. He moaned at his Ferrari team's decision to send their cars into a queue in the pit lane where their tyres cooled down, leaving them struggling for grip.

"In qualifying, I think we're still not extracting the full potential of the car," Hamilton reflected. "We didn't in the last race and again this weekend. I think there was potential to have been third or fourth on the grid this weekend, if we had perfected, extracted the tyre performance and not queued at the end of the pit lane.

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"And in the race, we're kind of on par pace-wise with at least a couple of cars ahead of us but obviously not quicker."

But Hamilton does not think even that will be enough to get him on the podium before the year is out, with Ferrari struggling to match the pace of even Mercedes and Red Bull, never mind runaway champions McLaren. He added: "If we can get our qualifying fixed, which is very, very hard to do against these quick cars, then maybe we can get slightly better results.

"But, ultimately, we're still fighting for fourth, fifth, sixth at best. We're currently limited, we're really limited with rear end compared to the guys that have clearly taken the step and improved their rear.

"It's all about how we extract in qualifying and if we can get the most out of the car. But at the moment we need to get 105 percent out of the car to be able to beat the guys ahead, so that's going to be tough."