Lewis Hamilton struggled to find pace all weekend in Azerbaijan, qualifying sixth and finishing in the same position.
After a DNF in Madrid from a brake failure, Hamilton would have been hoping for a more positive weekend in Baku. He both qualified and finished in P6, an obvious improvement from his previous result, but it was not smooth-sailing for the Ferrari driver.
Despite Charles Leclerc managing to make the front row of the grid, both the Monegasque and Hamilton’s race pace left a lot to be desired.
Speaking to media after the race, Hamilton was asked whether he would agree the theory that Ferrari is now the fourth-fastest team, having been the second-fastest for much of the campaign so far.
“What’s the importance of that?” the Briton responded. “Why would I agree with it? I don’t know where we are. Third or second, I don’t know.
“We’re obviously not the second quickest at the moment. But we’re ahead of the McLarens today, so maybe we’re the third.
Lewis Hamilton ‘can’t quite grasp’ Ferrari tyre struggles
It wasn’t just power on the straights that Hamilton struggled with in Baku- he went on to say that he had had a lot of difficulty with tyres.
“No. For me, all weekend there was switching the tyres on. Just all weekend, I don’t think I ever really got the tyres to switch on. And I can’t quite grasp why that is the case with our car.
“We made some changes to try and get it working. It was a bit better in FP3. And qualifying was a real struggle to switch them on.
“I think many people had it. But others seemed to struggle less. And then in the race, it was that. Just the whole race. I think at the end of the first stint, I had the tyres all of a sudden switched on. And I had OK pace. But then we got into the Medium tyre. And they wouldn’t work the whole time. And then just deployment.
“These guys just seemed to power, power, power everywhere. Which is pretty crazy to see. You’re having to block into places that you would not normally have to, like Turn 2, or Turn 4 or 5.”
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