Lando Norris admits he felt sorry for Ferrari after Austria struggle

Lando Norris felt sorry for Ferrari, as Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton fell out of podium contention in Austria where the teammates struggled to keep the chasing pack at bay.

Ferrari lined up second and third at the Red Bull Ring, taking their positions on the grid behind the Mercedes of George Russell.

Lando Norris reacts to Ferrari Austrian struggles

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Despite their strong starting positions, Hamilton finished in fifth place while Leclerc dropped to eighth.

Both teammates struggled with tyre wear on a sweltering hot Sunday where the track temperature peaked in the early 60s °C as they pushed their tyres to the limit in an attempt to keep pace with the leading Mercedes.

The teammates were overtaken on the track by Max Verstappen, Kimi Antonelli and Oscar Piastri, while Leclerc was also passed by Isack Hadjar and Lando Norris.

The reigning world champion said he actually felt sorry for Ferrari.

“The shock was Ferrari, struggling so much,” Norris told PlanetF1.com and other media in Austria. “So, to be honest, I feel bad for them.

“I mean, when you have no power, you have to push like hell in the straights, in the corners, and you can’t do that with these front tyres. A tough race for them.”

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Lewis Hamilton on Ferrari Austrian struggles: ‘Reality check’

The team’s woes came just one race after Hamilton’s breakthrough victory as a Ferrari driver, with the Briton taking the chequered flag at the Barcelona Grand Prix.

Hamilton won that race by 20 seconds, but on Sunday, he was 26s behind race winner Russell.

The seven-time world champion, who lost P2 in the drivers’ standings to Russell on Sunday, conceded it was a reality check for Ferrari, which has to find more performance with its second ADUO engine upgrade.

“I think it’s more of a reality check,” Hamilton said.

“I think we don’t know why we were so competitive on Sunday in Barcelona. I think that’s a very strong track for me. I chose a strategy that I thought from experience would work with the deck that we had it was like 2021.

“But then today I think we were hit more with reality, which is that we still do have a good car, but we are down compared to Mercedes just in our pace, they just are quicker.

“We still have to keep developing. It doesn’t mean we can’t close that gap.

“It’s just that one win doesn’t mean we’re going to be beating them all the time. I think it’s the opposite.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do. We still have to continue to add performance to the car, particularly power is where we’re going to have to keep working on pushing.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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