Lewis Hamilton has admitted Ferrari’s car is on a “knife-edge” trying to live with the team’s rivals in Formula 1 as a late brake failure derailed his Singapore Grand Prix.
Hamilton lost out to team-mate Charles Leclerc at the start, but the change in position and a substantial gap behind allowed him to make a second pitstop on Lap 46.
The Briton mounted a blistering charge on the Soft compound to regain the spot on Leclerc and was chasing down Andrea Kimi Antonelli ahead in the closing stages.
Hamilton was poised to overtake his successor at Mercedes when he experienced a sudden issue with the brakes, causing him to have to nurse his Ferrari to the end.
That allowed Leclerc back through into an eventual sixth place, while Hamilton’s troubles deteriorated to the point where he lapped 30 seconds slower on his final lap.
But while he managed to repel Fernando Alonso to the line, Hamilton dropped behind the Spaniard when he picked up a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits.
“It was an OK race, I didn’t get a great start. It was very difficult to overtake, and I was kind of stuck in position,” Hamilton told media including Motorsport Week.
“At the end I was catching Kimi and then [the] brakes gave up. You saw the spark come out of the left front and then I just had to back off to cool them down.
“When I cooled them down they came back a little bit, but still not back [entirely] at the end.”
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Ferrari’s disappointing showing at a track where it had been tipped to be competitive continued the miserable run that the team has endured since the summer break.
With Mercedes taking a dominant win and Red Bull’s progress being validated at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, Hamilton conceded the Italian marque has lost ground.
“Firstly, the guys are pushing so hard each weekend,” the seven-time F1 champion expressed.
“I feel pain for all the team, from catering to marketing to the engineers, who show up every weekend and they really do give absolutely everything.
“But the car we have is just not unfortunately at the level of the guys up ahead, particularly as they’ve had some upgrades and we can’t match them.
“We’re on the knife-edge trying to get as close as we can.”
However, Hamilton has reiterated that Ferrari harbours the potential to achieve more across the remaining six races, providing it can unlock greater pace over one lap.
“In qualifying I think we’re still not extracting the full potential of the car. We didn’t in the last race and we didn’t at this race,” he outlined.
“I think there was potential for us to have been third or fourth on the grid this weekend,
if we had perfected and extracted the tyre performance, and not queued at the end of the pit lane for example.
“Then the race, we were on par pace-wise at least with a couple of the guys ahead of us but obviously not quicker, quicker.
“I think if we can get our qualifying fixed, which is very, very hard to do against these very quick cars, then maybe we can get slightly better results.
“But ultimately we are still fighting for fourth, fifth, sixth at best.”
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