Lewis Hamilton: “The car won’t turn” – dramatic team radio before Silverstone comeback. Lewis Hamilton overcomes early Ferrari struggles to regain pace at Silverstone.

Lewis Hamilton endured a frustrating start to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, openly criticizing the handling of his Ferrari over team radio before staging an impressive comeback later in the race.

The opening laps proved difficult for the seven-time Formula 1 world champion, who struggled with a car that was refusing to rotate through the corners. Speaking to the Ferrari pit wall, Hamilton described the SF-26 as heavily affected by understeer, making it extremely challenging to find the confidence needed to attack the circuit.

“The understeer is really bad. The car just won’t turn into the corners,” Hamilton told the team, highlighting the difficulties he was facing in getting the front end to respond as he wanted.

After serving the five-second penalty he had received for a false start, the British driver rejoined the race behind George Russell. Although Hamilton had complained shortly beforehand about tyre degradation, he later informed Ferrari that his tyres were still in good condition when the team called him in for his pit stop.

The race took on a completely different complexion after the stop. Equipped with a fresh set of hard tyres, Lewis Hamilton immediately found significantly more pace, setting what was then the fastest lap of the race and beginning to close the gap to George Russell. At the same time, both drivers were chasing Max Verstappen as the battle for the leading positions intensified during the closing stages of the Silverstone Grand Prix.