Even though he’s had a somewhat disappointing start to the season, Lewis Hamilton remains undeterred and still believes he can improve together with Ferrari. After his sensational move to the Maranello team, the 40-year-old had expected to be more competitive.
Apart from the Shanghai sprint race—where the seven-time world champion claimed his first win in red—the rest of his season has so far fallen short of expectations. In the drivers’ standings, the British champion is currently seventh and has yet to claim a podium in a full Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton’s difficulties were quite evident in Miami. He finished third in the sprint race, qualified only twelfth for the GP, and ended the race in eighth place.
Ferrari drivers’ comments
After the Miami GP, Hamilton stated: “Overall I had a good day. It doesn’t seem like it with an eighth place, but I’m optimistic for the future.”
“I think this car really has the potential to perform well,” added the 40-year-old. “But something is holding us back at the moment. We’ve lost performance since China. The performance is there, we just can’t use it. Until we find a solution, we’ll stay where we are. But in the meantime, we can work on everything else.”
“It’s still a tough week for us. But here we’re in a better position, so clearly we’re not as fast as we could be,” he explained.
Lewis Hamilton spent much of his race disputing strategy decisions with the team over the radio. At the end of the first stint, he was fitted with medium tyres, while his teammate—who was ahead of him—had hard tyres.
After a long radio conversation, the two cars were swapped, but Lewis Hamilton couldn’t pull away as much as he wanted. Eventually, Charles Leclerc was lapping faster, and the pit wall requested another swap in an attempt to catch Kimi Antonelli.
In the end, both Ferraris finished the Miami GP behind the young Italian, in seventh and eighth positions.
Charles Leclerc commented: “Today wasn’t the Sunday we wanted and, even if the pace wasn’t there, I don’t think there were any miracles. If everything had gone perfectly, maybe we would have finished ahead of Kimi [Antonelli, P6], but that’s about it.”
“There wasn’t much more in the car, so I think we have to separate the two things,” the Monegasque added. “Yes, we need to fix those issues that probably cost us a position [the battle with Hamilton]. But the other six or seven positions are down to the car, and we need to improve it.”
According to Ferrari’s No.16, things could improve slightly at Imola, though he expects the difficulties to return in the following race.
“I think Imola could be a good track. Unfortunately, I’m not really looking forward to Monaco this year, because I don’t think we have a car that can be strong there,” Leclerc concluded.
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