The flash of the Sprint phases is the only high point for the Prancing Horse in Shanghai. Even in the second race of the season, the Chinese GP, the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton does not shine and finishes the race where it had started, in fifth and sixth position. After the Chinese Grand Prix, the British champion, who finished sixth, spoke to the journalists, describing the phases of a dull and rather anonymous race for the SF-25.
In China, McLaren grabs the double: the Oscar Piastri – Lando Norris duo takes all the points on Sunday in Shanghai, recovering after the difficulties of the Sprint. It was the Sprint that had misled the Ferrari drivers, who had dominated the 19-lap short race with Lewis Hamilton. After changing the setup again before Saturday’s qualifying, the red car returned to anonymity, showing it still hadn’t found a way to consistently unlock the much-anticipated potential of the SF-25.
Dull Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton admits the difficulties in China
The 1985-born driver from Stevenage admitted the difficulties faced on Sunday in Shanghai. The Englishman showed a slower race pace than his teammate Charles Leclerc, who still raced with a damaged front wing. With “minus 20/30 points of downforce,” as confirmed by engineer Bryan Bozzi on the radio, the Monegasque showed a faster pace than Sir Lewis.
“The changes we made for yesterday’s qualifying and today’s race were not good,” the Englishman explained. “We didn’t go in the right direction; the race probably went worse than qualifying,” he said to French broadcaster Canal+. “The start was good, but then I couldn’t fight.”
“Disappointed with the strategy? No, we tried, I’m happy we tried something different. The car was good in the Sprint, we made some changes with the aim of improving, but we didn’t go in the right direction. Overall, the car got much worse.”
“Raising the car? Who said that? We made other changes, we also adjusted the height of the car a bit, but it was a minimal change. Charles tested some things in Bahrain that I hadn’t tried: we both tried to follow that path, but it wasn’t a positive one, and I won’t follow it again.” Lewis Hamilton thus explained how the post-Sprint setup worsened his feeling with the SF-25: for the British driver, the changes in China did not produce the hoped-for results, and certainly, Sir Lewis will not adopt them again, at least not in Suzuka.
Lewis Hamilton immediately at work for Suzuka to push Ferrari forward
After the Chinese Grand Prix, Ferrari wants to turn the page quickly: the next stop will take F1 to Japan, to Suzuka, where Hamilton wants to try to push the SF-25 forward. The #44 of the Prancing Horse is not discouraged after the checkered flag in Shanghai: “Guys, I know it’s been tough. It wasn’t the result we were hoping for, but we keep working. We can definitely improve. We won’t give up,” he encouraged the team over the radio at the end of the race.
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