Lewis Hamilton issues Ferrari reality check despite Dutch GP breakthrough

After tweaks to how he approaches and executes a race weekend, Lewis Hamilton feels progress has been made so far at the Dutch Grand Prix.

However, while Hamilton cut a far more positive and upbeat figure compared to in Hungary and earlier in the week, he stressed that Ferrari is not yet at an acceptable place in terms of performance, as he prepares to start the Dutch Grand Prix from seventh, a position behind teammate Charles Leclerc.

Lewis Hamilton wants to find more performance with Ferrari

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

The Hungarian Grand Prix was a harrowing experience for Hamilton. Such was his reaction to being eliminated in Q2, ahead of finishing 12th on race day, speculation bubbled up about whether he would be back for part two of the season.

But, Hamilton is at Zandvoort and there has been no more talk of him being useless, or that Ferrari should change driver. A smooth race weekend thus far has seen him perform comparably to Leclerc.

“I tried to have a slight different approach into the weekend,” Hamilton revealed to the media, including PlanetF1.com.

“I’m not going to go into details of what that is, but I’ve made some tweaks, before I even got here, and then through the weekend, and it’s been a lot smoother.

“Yesterday, the car was a bit unpredictable, and I think we made some changes. I think maybe the wind makes it a little bit difficult as well.

“But I think we were looking for progress, and feel like I have had that this weekend. I’ve not been in Q3 for some time, so I’m grateful for that.

“It’s definitely encouraging to, at least on my side of the garage, to have a better result, because the boys in the garage deserve it, and the team deserve it, so I’m happy I could be there or thereabouts.”

However, there was a but.

Leclerc fell 0.678s short of polesitter Oscar Piastri, having taken pole last time out in Hungary, while Hamilton was 0.728s off the pace.

Hamilton stressed that, for all his feelings of self-improvement, such a deficit for Ferrari in general is not good enough.

“But of course, we’re not where we want to be,” Hamilton continued. “To be seven-tenths off, and six-and-a-half-tenths off, on a track like this, that’s a huge amount.

“So we’ve got to try and understand what that is, because Charles was P1 in the last race. But naturally, we do still have that deficit. We’ve had it all year long.”

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On a personal level, it was put to Hamilton that he did though appear more comfortable in the Ferrari SF-25 and able to push.

“Yeah, as I said, there’s some things I changed on the way in, which enabled me to start on the right foot, on the better foot,” he replied.

“You saw my first lap yesterday. It was quick. Quickest at the time. And then the next time was a spin [laughs].

“But the car, as I said, is quite unpredictable, but I think the setup changes, I think we’ve really worked well together with the engineers this weekend, and it’s not been, up and down changes. It’s been quite stable. Just made small tweaks, really, really small tweaks, and therefore I’ve just been trying to gain more and more confidence in the car.

“And I think that’s what’s happened the past couple of days.”

Asked if this is the best he has felt all season at Ferrari, Hamilton added: “It definitely feels like it’s been one of the most solid couple days so far of the year.

“As I said, that’s to do with some of the improvements in the process, my approach, and it’s just a little bit calmer overall.

“The team did a great job through qualifying. We just need more performance. Tomorrow, maybe race pace will be a bit better. I hope we can apply some pressure and try to move forwards.”

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