For now, the results are not fully visible. At least, not completely. However, the seed has been planted, and expectations for the upcoming races will likely be different.
Lewis Hamilton could not go beyond seventh place in qualifying at Zandvoort, a track that has historically been a challenging one for Ferrari due to its characteristics, which tend to amplify the weaknesses of Maranello’s cars.
However, Hamilton feels that something is different compared to the first part of the season, where he often seemed like a shadow of his usual self. The credit goes to his changed approach, which began with a Friday session in which he immediately adopted a more aggressive mindset.
“Yes, I had a better feeling,” Lewis Hamilton confirmed at the end of official practice in Zandvoort. “After some reflection, I definitely changed my approach to the weekend.”
“I changed a few things in my preparation, which made everything feel more relaxed and positive. It’s not the ideal track for the car, because the SF-25 has always been very difficult to drive here. But sixth and seventh is a solid result, and I hope to improve tomorrow and put pressure on those ahead. We still need to push.”
As team principal Frédéric Vasseur noted, the team started the weekend too far behind the McLarens and was forced to play catch-up. Closing the entire gap proved very difficult—probably impossible due to technical limitations—but progress was tangible.
“I don’t think anything changed within the team itself. I changed my approach to try to get closer to Charles Leclerc. As a team, we’ve done a great job together. At the start, we were 1.6 seconds behind in Free Practice 1. The gap to the McLarens was incredible. We closed in a bit, but the difference is still much bigger than we had hoped.”
“For the race, I hope we get mixed conditions. We’ll aim to work together with the team and Charles to put pressure on those ahead and bring home as many points as we can.”
Leave a Reply