Hamilton explains the difference between Mercedes and Ferrari in qualifying
Lewis Hamilton finished third in the Sprint Race at the Chinese Grand Prix and also secured third place in qualifying for Sunday’s race. Once again, Ferrari showed that its main strength lies in race starts. In the early hours of the morning in Italy, both Hamilton and Charles Leclerc managed to gain positions immediately after the lights went out.
However, qualifying sessions—both the one held on Friday and the session that determined the starting grid for tomorrow’s Grand Prix—once again confirmed Mercedes as the team to beat. Lewis Hamilton, who spent many years racing with Mercedes before his move to Ferrari, revealed what may have made the difference between Ferrari’s performance and Mercedes’ pace in the first qualifying sessions of the season.
The “party mode” used by Mercedes
During the post-Sprint Race press conference, Lewis Hamilton spoke about a particular engine mode that Mercedes appears to use in the final phases of qualifying, something Ferrari currently does not have at its disposal. The seven-time Formula 1 world champion admitted that his long experience with the Brackley-based team gives him a clear understanding of how they operate in these situations.
Hamilton explained: “The difference is that I was at Mercedes for a very, very long time, so I know how things work there. In qualifying they have another mode that they can use, a bit like the old ‘party mode,’ and when they get to Q2 they switch it on, while we don’t have that. Whatever it is.”
A noticeable performance jump in Q2
Andrea Kimi Antonelli secured his first pole position, becoming the youngest driver ever to achieve that feat, with an advantage of almost four tenths over Hamilton. In the first official outings of the season, however, Mercedes’ advantage over Ferrari appeared to shrink during race conditions.
Lewis Hamilton also addressed this aspect when discussing the difference between qualifying and race pace. The British driver suggested that the extra performance Mercedes can unlock during qualifying is particularly evident in the middle phase of the session.
“Then in the race, obviously, they don’t have that mode, but overall they still have an advantage,” Lewis Hamilton said. “We need to figure out what it is, but there’s something extra they’re able to extract, especially in Q2. You can see that in Q1 we’re not that far away, and then suddenly there’s a big jump. In Q1 we were about a tenth behind, I think, and then suddenly it becomes seven tenths or half a second. It’s a huge jump.”
The comment highlights a key point for Ferrari as the season progresses: understanding exactly where Mercedes is finding that additional performance in qualifying could be crucial in closing the gap over a single lap.
Lewis Hamilton’s comments in Shanghai therefore underscore the steep learning curve Ferrari faces as they attempt to dismantle the Mercedes power unit supremacy in this new regulatory era. By pinpointing the Q2 “jump,” Hamilton isn’t just complaining about a deficit; he is providing a roadmap for Ferrari’s electrical and software departments to focus their energy deployment research. While the original “party mode” was restricted by the FIA in 2020 to ensure engine modes remained consistent between qualifying and the race, the 2026 rules have opened new avenues for sophisticated energy harvesting and deployment tricks. If Mercedes has indeed found a way to “turn up the wick” legally without violating the single-mode rule—perhaps through advanced battery management—Ferrari will need to find their own version of a “party” if they want to stop an all-Silver front row from becoming a seasonal trend.
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