A frustrated Lewis Hamilton hinted at performance issue plaguing Ferrari after FP2 for this weekend’s Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix.
The Brit was third-fastest in FP1, with a 1:14.096s, which, although three tenths off the fastest time set by Lando Norris, was two tenths quicker than the sister Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, and just one hundredth behind the Red Bull of Max Verstappen.
FP2 was a different story, however, with Hamilton ending the day in 11th place, just under eight tenths adrift of Oscar Piastri’s time.
Late in the session, an irritated Hamilton took to team radio to tell his engineers the car was “not driveable.”
Speaking afterwards, Hamilton said the situation was “not fun,” adding it had “not [been] a good day.”
When asked if his experience could help provide answers in order to assist the team to improve the SF-25, Hamilton said: I would say I’m motivating the team at the moment. Just keep your head down, keep working away and just don’t give up.
“We keep going, keep pushing, focus on solving the issues, which we’ll try do to do. You’re right on a Friday, you’re hoping for a good day, and it doesn’t go well. But then you have a weekend in Monaco where all of a sudden the car feels great and I honestly thought the car was going to be good today.
“But it wasn’t too bad in FP1, FP2 was quite a lot worse. Naturally that’s frustrating for everyone. We had some problem which meant we were losing some downforce, so hopefully with that fix for tomorrow we’ll be in a better place.
Vasseur admits afternoon ‘struggle’ but calls Hamilton radio message ‘extreme’
Team Principal Fred Vasseur admitted the second session was a downgrade compared to that of FP1, describing it as “quite intense.”
“I think we had a very good pace this morning. We struggled a bit more in the afternoon,” he added. “I think we had a decent lap with Charles before the mistake on [Turn] 7, he was in advance on P1.
“But the target is to put it up together, not to do some good corners only. And then we struggled a bit more at the beginning of each stint on the long stint.
“I think it was true for us, but true for a couple of other cars. The track was very dirty with a lot of marbles as soon as we were out of the line. It was quite difficult to recover.
“Overall, it was a long day, we collected also good information. It was the first time that we were running the front wing. I think we’ll have a lot of work tonight.”
Despite Vasseur’s admission of the problems the team is facing ahead of Saturday’s qualifying, he felt that Hamilton’s radio message was an overreaction.
“The comments were a bit extreme on the radio today, but he did also a strong last stint with the Soft in the lap time of the first two.
“It meant that the car was not so horrible than he said on the radio. But again, the comments that they are doing when they are in the car for me, it’s not a drama.
“As long as they are back into the track and we have a constructive debriefing, this is the most important [thing].”
READ MORE – Why Ferrari will continue with ‘extreme’ SF-25 set-ups despite Monaco exploits
