Lewis Hamilton looking for redemption at Imola
In many ways, the Miami GP was Lewis Hamilton’s worst race with Ferrari—not so much in terms of results (there have been worse Sundays), but more due to his relationship with the team after some heated team radio messages criticizing race management in Florida.
The British driver and the Maranello squad had two weeks to clear the air, and it was important to do so with the Imola weekend around the corner—an event where Ferrari is determined to avoid another poor showing.
Lewis Hamilton’s comments
Lewis Hamilton did not want to reveal much about the updates the SF-25 will receive during the triple-header in Imola–Monaco–Montmeló. However, the seven-time world champion denied rumors that he’s already working on a new rear suspension: “I don’t know what people are talking about. I’m not doing any work on the rear suspension. As I said, from now until Montmeló, we’ll be trying to unlock some performance we haven’t been able to extract. We’re following our plan. Hopefully we can get at least a bit more than what we saw in the last race. In Spain, everyone will also have to fit a different front wing. It’ll be interesting to see how that affects the grid—we won’t know until we get there.” – the seven-time Formula 1 world champion pointed out ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix weekend.
“The car still has a lot of performance that we haven’t been able to unlock. I hope this week we can start taking at least a step in that direction. There’s one issue in particular with the car—probably the most significant one—and that’s what we’re trying to fix. But there are also other related problems that are costing us time,” added the seven-time world champion, who is far from giving up. “At the moment, I know about some things in the pipeline, but I can’t tell you whether we’ll gain four tenths, half a second, or a whole second by the end of the season. We can’t close the door to any idea; we have to keep our eyes open and our heads high. We have to keep pushing with the expectation and the goal of winning. That’s the aim every weekend—when I sit down with the engineers, I ask how we’re going to win this weekend. Maybe I’m a bit too optimistic, but that’s how you have to approach every race. You have to show up positive and aggressive. I’m not coming into this weekend thinking we’ll be seventh or eighth, even if we’re currently in that range. And I will change that mindset.”
