Lewis Hamilton said Ferrari are in "no man's land" after missing out on a podium position at the British Grand Prix, describing their SF-25 car as "snappy" and difficult to drive.
Hamilton's run of 12 straight podiums at Silverstone – where he has triumphed a record nine times – came to a halt on Sunday as he placed fourth.
The seven-time world champion had been in contention for pole position on Saturday, only for a late wobble to drop him to P5 as Max Verstappen topped the timesheets.
In Sunday's rain-affected race, Hamilton was in contention to finish third behind the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, but he failed to haul in the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg.
That represented the German's first podium in 238 races – by far the most required to score a top-three finish of any driver in Formula One history (previously Adrian Sutil with 128).
Hamilton has now gone 13 races without a podium finish, the worst run of his career, and he outlined his frustrations when speaking to Sky Sports after the race.
"The car was really, really hard to drive," Hamilton said. "It just has no stability. You go to corner, and it's snapping, snapping, snapping, snapping.
"It just won't stay still and that makes it so difficult. At a low speed, it doesn't like to turn. It's a really frustrating balance.
"It's the worst feeling. When it's constantly snapping you just have no confidence. The goal is to try and build up confidence in the car and get faster and faster over time.
"It's like building a wall and then knocking it down. When you can't build that confidence you're not going anywhere. You're in no man's land. That's how I felt for most of the race."
Hamilton's bid to gatecrash the top three was also impacted by misjudgements in Ferrari's strategy.
His first pit stop, which came as heavy rain arrived after 11 laps, dropped him from fourth to eighth, while an early switch to slick tyres later saw him lose five seconds as he attempted to chase down Hulkenberg.
"We lost time and a lot of places through strategy," Hamilton added.
"I'm not really sure how I was P4 and came out P8. That made life very difficult. I got stuck behind three cars for a long time.
"Then I stopped early in the hope of a big undercut and jeez, it was so tricky. This car does not like these conditions at all. It was not a good day."
After two weekends off, the F1 season resumes on July 25, with practice ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa.
