Lewis Hamilton has admitted Ferrari “rushed” its radical ‘Macarena’ rear wing, which was abandoned after FP1 for this weekend’s Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix.
The Scuderia confirmed, via Hamilton, on Thursday that it would be using the innovative design in Shanghai, having given it a five-lap trial in Bahrain testing.
But after the first practice session earlier in the morning, the decision was taken to scrap the wing and revert back to the original for Sprint qualifying.
The decision has affirmed a sense of anticlimax, more so with Hamilton’s revelation after Sprint qualifying that it opted to bring the wing several races ahead of schedule.
“I don’t really know why we went back [to the old wing],” he told Sky F1. I think, we rushed it to get it here, and it was not supposed to be on the cards till… I think it was race four or five, something like that.
“They did a great job to rush it here, we only had two of them, and it was maybe a little bit premature so we took it off. The car was still great, we’ll work to try and bring it back when it’s ready.”
Lewis Hamilton aware of ‘effort’ needed to improve Ferrari power
Hamilton qualified fourth for the Sprint, a race he won last year – the only top three finish he mustered with the much-maligned SF-25.
The Brit’s time was six tenths off that of pole-sitter George Russell’s, and a fraction off Lando Norris, who took third.
Hamilton was nonetheless happy with his grid placing, but acknowledged that the work needs to go into increasing the SF-26’s power to catch up to the Mercedes’ superior speed.
“I’m really pleased with the result,” he said. “My team and engineers did a fantastic job pulling the car together. The car felt great overall.
“I think we’re losing time on the straights, and the time we’re losing is really quite significant.”
Hamilton added: “We have a lot of work to do; we need to put in a lot of effort in Maranello to boost the engine power.
“We were aware that Mercedes started their development process earlier than us or our rivals, and indeed, that’s what they did last time too. So they’ve done a fantastic job, and we need to shift gears, push hard to close that gap.”
“As for the car, I think it felt great and that we can compete with them in the corners, but if you’re behind in engine power, there’s not much you can do.”
READ MORE – Kimi Antonelli and Pierre Gasly face FIA probe after Shanghai Sprint qualifying
Discussion about this post