Lewis Hamilton has revealed the key reason why his Ferrari looked so different in race trim compared to Sprint Qualifying and the Sprint race at Silverstone. The seven-time world champion admitted that an incorrect setup decision made together with his race engineer left him battling severe understeer throughout the opening stages of the British Grand Prix.
Hamilton’s Silverstone weekend ends on a disappointing note
After taking Sprint pole on Friday and leading Ferrari’s charge during the Sprint race, Lewis Hamilton’s weekend ended on a more frustrating note. The British driver crossed the finish line in third place on Sunday, disappointed not only by Ferrari’s decision to pit him during the Safety Car period but also by his lack of pace compared to teammate Charles Leclerc.
Although Lewis Hamilton later claimed that the setup philosophy he had advocated ultimately helped Ferrari secure its second victory of the season, he also admitted that a mistake in the configuration of his own SF-26 prevented him from extracting the car’s full potential.
Hamilton reveals the setup mistake
Speaking to Sky Sports UK after the chequered flag, Hamilton explained that the biggest issue was the lack of front-end grip.
“We definitely underestimated the importance of the front wing,” the British driver admitted. “But that was my mistake and my engineer’s mistake.”
Hamilton’s onboard footage during the race clearly showed his struggle with persistent understeer. The lack of front-end rotation made it extremely difficult to guide the car through Silverstone’s high-speed corners, forcing him to apply greater steering input and placing excessive stress on the front tyres. As a result, his tyres degraded much earlier than those of Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli during the opening stint.
Speaking later during the FIA post-race press conference, Lewis Hamilton went into greater detail about what happened.
“Regarding the setup, I noticed that Charles had increased the front load compared to qualifying, I believe, and had added more front wing. But with the differential settings we were using, it looked to me as though the car would be massively oversteery. So I took some front wing off, and at the start of the race I ended up with massive understeer. As a result, he simply drove away from me. I just couldn’t get the car to rotate until about halfway through the first stint.”
Lewis Hamilton added that the situation improved only after Ferrari adjusted the differential settings during the race.
“Then, thanks to some changes to the differential, I managed to improve the handling slightly, but by that point the gap was already huge,” Lewis Hamilton concluded.
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