Lewis Hamilton has indicated that a component on his Ferrari car is not performing as well as it is on his teammate Charles Leclerc`s car. This revelation comes after a disappointing weekend at the Japanese Grand Prix for Hamilton.
Hamilton started the race from eighth and finished in seventh place. He managed to overtake Isack Hadjar of Racing Bulls early in the race but then spent most of the race running in isolation on Sunday.
In contrast, Leclerc outperformed Hamilton in qualifying by three tenths of a second. Leclerc started and finished the race in fourth position, crossing the finish line 13 seconds ahead of Hamilton.
“I did the best I could today. I was genuinely lacking performance compared to the cars ahead,” Hamilton told media.
“We found something on the car that was underperforming for the last three races, so I am hoping when that is fixed, I will start getting better results. I’m losing just over a tenth a lap with this issue we have. I’m hoping by the next race it’s fixed.”
Ferrari is currently not setting up their cars with as low a ride height as they would prefer. This comes after both Hamilton and Leclerc were disqualified from the Chinese Grand Prix. Hamilton was disqualified due to excessive wear on the plank under his car, and Leclerc’s car was found to be underweight.
Modern Formula 1 car designs are optimized to run as close to the ground as possible to maximize downforce and enhance performance.
However, setting the car too low increases the risk of plank wear, potentially leading to disqualification. It is not yet clear if this issue is related to the underperforming component Hamilton mentioned.
“They [the team] are aware of it and don’t know why [it is happening]. When a new component comes, hopefully it will be gone and be the same on both cars,” he explained.
“I’m relatively happy with the race pace I had, with what I did have. Otherwise, a good performance from the team and they did a good job. Onwards and upwards.”
Hamilton further commented to written media, “I’m really hoping in the next race there will be some positive changes. Through the first three races, there has been a bit of a deficit between both sides of the garage on an element of the car.
“On my side, something is underperforming. It’s good to know, and with what I had this was the best result.”
Leclerc Adjusts Driving Style
Ferrari is currently 76 points behind McLaren in the Constructors` Championship after just three race weekends. Despite initial optimism about keeping pace with McLaren after their 2024 performance, Leclerc expressed disappointment at the gap. He suggested that he might be adapting his driving style to gain a competitive edge over Hamilton.
“There was nothing more in the car,” Leclerc stated.
“As a team, we did a good job with balance and strategy to optimise the result, but it is even more disappointing when you do everything perfectly and finish P4 and you are two or three tenths off minimum to the guys ahead.
“The first stint was not too bad, but then we lost a bit of performance. Positive is we maximised the weekend, but negative that the pace is just not there.”
“I went in a specific direction with my driving style, and I feel this will help me maximise the car more often than not. This still needs to be confirmed, but I’m looking forward to Bahrain to see if that works out for me.
“If it does, I am confident for the rest of the year it’s looking good I can maximise the car, but if that means we are P4 that is not great. I hope more performance is coming, but we should have a few things coming soon.”
Formula 1 will continue its series of races in Sakhir for the Bahrain Grand Prix next weekend on April 11-13.
