Lewis Hamilton believes Ferrari’s tyre warm-up difficulties were a major factor behind his fifth place in Dutch Grand Prix qualifying at Zandvoort, with the seven-time Formula 1 world champion revealing that the SF-26 needed two preparation laps while rival cars could bring their tyres into the correct window with only one.
Ferrari failed to shine in qualifying for the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix, with both SF-26 cars set to start Sunday’s race from the third row. Lewis Hamilton qualified fifth, narrowly ahead of Charles Leclerc in sixth, leaving the Maranello team with considerably more work to do in a race where overtaking is difficult.
Lewis Hamilton identifies Ferrari tyre warm-up problem at Zandvoort
The two Ferrari drivers appear to have been slowed by different problems. Charles Leclerc explained after qualifying that a change to Ferrari’s power unit strategy had hurt him, particularly during Q3. The Monegasque’s concerns over those changes are covered in more detail in our analysis of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari power unit issue.
For Lewis Hamilton, however, the problem appears to have been different. The British driver highlighted Ferrari’s difficulty in bringing the tyres into the correct operating window. Temperatures at Zandvoort were relatively low, and that may also have made life harder for the Scuderia compared with McLaren and Mercedes.
“I don’t know whether [this result] is a disappointment,” Lewis Hamilton said. “I think we came into this weekend trying to make progress. We were very strong in FP1 and Charles was very strong in the Sprint Race. But with the tyres, in these track conditions, there was something we were missing.”
The problem fits into the broader Ferrari Dutch GP qualifying picture, where tyre activation and changing conditions emerged as important factors in the team’s inability to convert encouraging balance into a stronger grid position.
Ferrari SF-26 improves after Lewis Hamilton’s Sprint Qualifying struggles
Lewis Hamilton had been much less satisfied after Friday’s Sprint Qualifying, when he described the car as “a real disaster” compared with the feeling he had experienced during FP1. By Saturday’s main qualifying session, however, the situation had improved significantly.
The seven-time world champion felt the SF-26 itself was behaving better, but Ferrari still could not prepare the tyres as effectively as its rivals. In particular, the double preparation-lap approach required to generate enough temperature did not deliver the desired result.
“For sure, the car was better for me today,” Lewis Hamilton explained. “But tyre preparation and everything around that is where the others did a better job. We had to do two warm-up laps while the others only needed one. That’s because the tyres weren’t warming up enough, and we need to understand what happened.”
That difference is particularly important in qualifying. If a driver needs an additional lap to generate the necessary tyre temperature, the entire preparation sequence becomes more complicated, especially when track conditions are evolving and the timing of the final runs becomes increasingly critical.
Ferrari’s difficulty in finding the correct tyre window has been one of the key technical themes of the Zandvoort weekend, alongside the team’s efforts to extract more from the upgraded SF-26. Further developments can be followed in our dedicated Ferrari technical analysis coverage.
Why starting fifth makes Lewis Hamilton’s Dutch GP more difficult
Starting from the third row at Zandvoort is far from ideal. The Dutch circuit is notoriously difficult for overtaking, with only a limited number of places where a driver can realistically complete a move against a closely matched rival.
Charles Leclerc demonstrated one of those opportunities during the Sprint with his move into Turn 1, but consistently making progress through the field remains difficult. Track position therefore carries particular value, increasing the significance of Ferrari’s fifth and sixth places in qualifying.
The result has also left the Scuderia assessing how much the tyre preparation problem contributed to its overall performance. Ferrari’s wider qualifying difficulties, including its approach to preparation laps and the changing weather, were also central to the team’s assessment of the Dutch GP qualifying setback.
Lewis Hamilton remains optimistic about Ferrari’s race pace
Despite the difficult starting position, Lewis Hamilton is considerably more positive about Sunday’s race than his qualifying result alone might suggest. The British driver believes the improvements made to the SF-26 have produced a car that should perform well over the longer Grand Prix distance.
“I think the car has improved and in the race we’ll have a good car,” Lewis Hamilton said. “We’ll have to execute everything well tomorrow. I’m really optimistic for tomorrow. We have to keep our heads down and keep pushing.”
The optimism is significant after the difficulties Lewis Hamilton experienced earlier in the weekend. Although Ferrari still needs to understand why its tyres required more preparation than those of its rivals in the cooler Zandvoort conditions, the seven-time world champion believes the underlying car has moved in the right direction.
That leaves execution as the next challenge. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc will begin the Dutch Grand Prix side by side on the third row, meaning both will need to maximise the start, strategy and race pace if Ferrari is to recover ground on a circuit where opportunities to overtake are limited. More updates on the British driver’s 2026 campaign are available in our dedicated Lewis Hamilton Ferrari coverage.
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