Seven-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton has spoken out and raised a suspicion he has regarding his Ferrari and that of his teammate Charles Leclerc. Leclerc says the SF-21 “doesn’t have much more, this is the pace,” and the Englishman doesn’t understand the disadvantage he has with his teammate.
Lewis Hamilton (United Kingdom, 1985), the driver with the most wins in the history of Formula 1, has pointed out bluntly that so far, his Ferrari SF-25 is “underperforming” compared to his teammate.
Ferrari is having a disappointing start to the season. Leaving aside the double disqualification in Shanghai, the overall performance of the SF-25 is clearly below that of McLaren and Mercedes, and also behind Verstappen’s Red Bull.
After a difficult day for the British driver, he said, “I hope to see some positive changes in the next race,” he told the international media after the Suzuka race, in what sounds like an internal message and with a certain haste on his part.
“During the first three races there has been a small deficit between the two ‘teams’ (Leclerc’s and his own) in some aspects of the car. For my part, something is underperforming and it’s good to know. With what I had, that’s the best result I could get,” he said without revealing what it was really about.
“We have found something in the car that has underperformed in the last three races. I really hope that, when they fix it, I’ll start getting better results,” he insisted. ‘I’m losing just over a tenth of a second per lap with this problem. I hope it will be fixed for the next race,’ he added.
Speaking to other media, the Ferrari driver also pointed out that “during the first three races there has been a small difference between both sides of the garage in one aspect of the car. For my part, something is not performing sufficiently,” he maintains.
Ferrari director Fred Vasseur, however, points out that the difference in performance between Hamilton’s and Leclerc’s cars in Japan was related to their different set-up choices. “The balance, therefore, is related to their decisions,“ said the Frenchman.
“We continue to explore the new car and we are taking different paths to adapt to the drivers. I think the picture will be different in Bahrain because we spent three days there last month (in testing) and we have more control,” he added.