Lewis Hamilton is not sure if Ferrari sees why it is ailing a bit in F1 qualifying, as he feels the pain of the whole team with not a lot of good results to show.
As much as Hamilton has been quick in race trim, the Ferrari driver has had issues in qualifying despite showing good one-lap pace in practice sessions. It is similar story with Charles Leclerc, which is why the team hasn’t scored a good haul of points or regular podiums off-late.
Tyre warm-up has become an integral part and several have faced issues in finding optimum temperature for the quick lap. Hamilton reckons they lose a lot of tyre temperature while waiting in the pitlane as drivers these days are slower than before due to set time for out laps.
Hamilton prefers the old system of creating gaps on out lap rather than doing so from the pitlane itself. But for now, it is not possible to go back, but he feels Ferrari can do better with positioning and wait less in the pitlane to have better tyre temperature on the out lap, without the need of extra push.
Hamilton isn’t sure if Ferrari considers it has a huge problem at this stage. “It has, but I don’t know whether or not they see it, so much,” he said to media. “But we’re losing so much temperature. And maybe you know, 5°C or 6°C, whatever it is, it’s still a lot of temperature and it’s really hard to gain that back in the outlap without using the tyre so much, which we often do.
“And we’re just starting the lap…I think the guys that are on pole in Singapore, they went out quicker, [with] I think, less waiting in the pitlane. So I think that’s an area we can improve on, for sure. And I think naturally you’ve seen Red Bull had an upgrade; you’ve seen, I think, Mercedes have found something. And we haven’t. So we’re just fighting with what we have.
“Everyone’s trying so hard, but it’s definitely disappointing to finish what we are when there was potential to potentially be higher. I mean, I told them in the drivers’ briefing, I thought it was better before. Many of the rules have changed since the new people [started] coming,” summed up Hamilton, who feels the pain of everyone at Ferrari due to low-key results off-late.
The Italian outfit has shifted its focus on 2026, but with Red Bull and Mercedes chipping in via minor updates, it has left Ferrari in a vulnerable spot where they are quicker than the rest of the field, but not so much against the top pack. He is not sure where the team can perform as well in the next few races.
“Firstly, the guys are pushing so hard each weekend,” said Hamilton. “I feel pain for all the team, from catering to marketing to the guys in the garage, 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 ahead of us, 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. I don’t know, I think there was potential for us to be further ahead in Singapore. In qualifying I think we’re still not extracting the full potential of the car. We didn’t in Baku and we didn’t in Singapore. I think there was potential for us to have been third or fourth on the grid in Singapore, 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.
“I don’t know, we are very limited with rear end compared to guys who have taken the step and improved their rear like Mercedes and Red Bull. What races we have got, we have Austin, Mexico…I mean, it is all about how we extract in qualifying, it is where we can get the most out of the car. At the moment, if we get 105% from the car, we will beat the guys ahead, so that’s going to be tough,” summed up Hamilton.
Here’s Ferrari trio on Singapore GP
