Lewis Hamilton confirms key Ferrari investigation after ‘big, big struggle’
Lewis Hamilton was not happy with his Ferrari SF-25 after Free Practice 2 in Hungary.
Despite trying two different approaches to uncover pace, Lewis Hamilton says that Hungary is becoming a “big, big struggle” for him.
The eight-time winner at the circuit even doubts that a second-row start would be possible for him this weekend.
Lewis Hamilton faces Hungarian Grand Prix performance struggle
Though he managed to set the sixth-quickest time in Free Practice 2 ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton isn’t confident that he’ll be able to find any pace rivaling that of his Scuderia Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc.
“Today was not a good day for me,” Hamilton concluded to media after the session.
“Big, big struggle with the balance of the car and yeah, a lot different to the previous years I’ve been here.”
With eight victories at the Hungaroring, Lewis Hamilton is the winningest driver in the track’s history, with his first victory coming in 2007 and his most recent in 2020. But barring a miracle — and a major improvement in his SF-25 — he won’t be adding to that tally this weekend.
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“We tried two different things,” Hamilton said when pressed to identify more specifically the problems he’s having.
“We tried rectifying some of the balance problems we had in P1. We changed the car for P2, and it’s just inconsistent, very, very inconsistent balance from corner to corner.
“So you can’t say it’s just understeer. You can’t just say it’s oversteer. It’s just far from being on rails and very, very out of balance.
“But I think it’s probably something to do with maybe tyre temperatures or something.
“So we’re gonna try and figure that out for tomorrow.”
Meanwhile, teammate Charles Leclerc ended both practice sessions in P3, the only driver with even a minute chance of challenging McLaren for a win. But Hamilton isn’t confident he’ll be able to do the same come qualifying.
“I mean, Charles has been quick today,” Hamilton said when asked if he thought a second-row start was possible.
“I mean, he’s been generally happy with the car. For me, I’m quite far off, so I highly, highly doubt it.”
Though Leclerc himself expressed more confidence, he’s still thinks “it’s going to be very tough” to outqualify McLaren.
“They seem to be a step forward,” Leclerc explained.
But in dramatic contrast to his teammate, he did continue, “But never say never. I mean, the feeling with the car has been pretty positive so far. We’ve got to do some steps more in the right direction for tomorrow, but, but for now, the feeling is good.”
He admitted that Ferrari seems to be the best-placed team when it comes to being able to challenge the McLarens — “behind McLaren and ahead of the rest,” he described it.
“I hope we can do something better than P3,” Leclerc concluded.
Yet again, it appears that the Hungarian Grand Prix will be a tale of two vastly different Ferraris.
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