Lewis Hamilton has revealed that moving his set-up closer to Charles Leclerc helped him close the gap to his Ferrari team-mate at the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix.
Hamilton capitalised on upgrades bolstering Ferrari’s competitiveness to match his best Grand Prix result with the team as he came home fourth at the Red Bull Ring.
The Briton rued a mistake on his final Q3 lap costing him a likely front-row start as he ended up less than a tenth down on the time that secured Leclerc second place.
But having still achieved his highest starting position this season, Hamilton attributed the improved one-lap showing to beginning last weekend with a better baseline.
Hamilton has since explained that he has converged on Leclerc’s set-up direction, though admitted he is still getting to grips with the excessive oversteer it generates.
“Set-up even closer to Charles, yeah,” Hamilton told media including Motorsport Week.
“He drives a massively oversteering car. Somehow slides the rear, so it doesn’t have degradation. When I slide the rear, I get massive degradation.
“It’s definitely something I think you have to get used to. Supposedly, it took Carlos [Sainz] a couple of years to get used to. I don’t want to do that.”
But with Leclerc crossing the line nine seconds ahead in Spielberg, Hamilton is under no illusion that he has added ground to make up to get on his team-mate’s level.
“Still losing massive ground,” he acknowledged. “We lose eight seconds, nine seconds – compared to Charles.”
Hamilton better-placed for home Ferrari debut
However, going into his debut home race with Ferrari at Silverstone this weekend, the seven-time F1 champion is satisfied with the strides he is making with the team.
“I think we’ve moved forwards,” he said. “The upgrade was quite small, so we didn’t really know. They didn’t even mention any time because it was that small.
“But I think perhaps it was a bigger result from putting the floor on. That’s the real positive.
“It’s pretty great to see the team bringing the upgrade. We’ve moved forwards. We’ve been the second fastest this weekend. Third and fourth is a real positive.
“There’s lots of good things to take from the weekend, and there’s lots of areas to focus on.
“Qualifying was better. We found a problem that I had in my last qualifying lap, which cost me a tenth.
“There was some issue on the car, so that’s again a positive result. But I would have gone backwards if I had started second. So I’ve got to find race pace, that’s key.”
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