Lewis Hamilton admits the challenges of matching Charles Leclerc’s pace, who has been familiar with the Ferrari Scuderia for many years. The British driver acknowledges that at the Austrian Grand Prix he got closer to the Monegasque and confirms that he would have preferred to try a different race strategy than his teammate. Looking ahead to next year, Lewis Hamilton hopes for a Ferrari that better suits his driving style.
The weekend awaiting Lewis Hamilton at Silverstone was clearly anticipated during the usual Thursday press conference. Ferrari’s hospitality area was swarmed by the attending media, many local journalists, offering an early taste of the sold-out atmosphere that will surround the Briton’s first race in red at his home circuit.
After the obligatory introduction (“There is always a special magic here at Silverstone, I hope the weather and everything else will be on our side, because obviously we are not as fast as McLaren”), Lewis moved on to current topics, starting with what happened last Sunday in Spielberg regarding his race strategy. His position was very clear: Hamilton does not want to have the same race strategy as Charles Leclerc.
“We talked about it, even just an hour ago. I mentioned it after the race, then we had time to reflect. I believe the team’s initial thought was that they wanted to secure third and fourth place, which is fine. But I said, look, I’m not here to start fourth and finish fourth, I’m racing and trying every small advantage possible. For example, last Sunday both Charles and I were on the same strategy, we both chose medium-hard-medium tires. Then I said I would have preferred medium-medium-hard, I never want to do the same as my teammate, and specifically last Sunday, in that last stint, we were not under pressure from other competitors.”
“We talked about it, and the team explained that if I had extended the middle stint trying a one-stop race, I would have been overtaken by Charles in the final laps, and I replied that there could have been a safety car, and then I wouldn’t have taken any risk. I do not want to reach the point of ignoring team orders, so what we are working on now is improving our communication; we are still learning how we like to operate.”
Regarding the SF-25 car, Lewis Hamilton stated: “I think we have made progress and I am really confident we will continue on this path, but we still need to try to get more out of this car. There are still some initial problems we are trying to solve, some short-term and others long-term, but we are doing our best to maximize what we have.”
Lewis Hamilton returned to the subject of car setup, one of the most discussed topics in his first half of the championship. Despite not having a winning car at his disposal, Lewis knows that his performance is mainly judged by internal comparison with Charles Leclerc, and the balance on this front is not positive.
“Charles has been here for a very long time and has contributed to the evolution and development of this car. He has found a way for the car to work well; I have tried other directions that on paper should have worked, but simply didn’t, and I don’t know why.”
“Things have improved anyway, I have slowly come very close to the way Charles makes the car work; last week in Spielberg was the time things went best, and indeed our pace was the closest since the start of the year. It’s a difficult balance to find and drive, and above all for me it’s not comfortable. So it’s not a scenario I want to have in the future, and that’s why I am working with Loic Serra and all the guys at the factory to make sure that the next car can be born with a bit of my DNA inside.”
Lewis Hamilton was also asked for a personalized comment on the Verstappen-Mercedes situation. Would he advise Max Verstappen to join his former team?
“Of course!” was the answer, but then Lewis wanted to recall a story: “Many, many years ago, I was a huge Mercedes fan, and when I was asked for an opinion about Red Bull, I said it was just a drinks company.”
“I regretted saying those words; actually, I just wanted to say that Mercedes was simply fantastic back then, I was just trying to support my team because the truth is that Red Bull has proven to be an incredible team. There are so many exceptional people there, they have dominated for years. But if someone asked me about Mercedes today, I would say they are a great team, with passion, amazing staff and a fantastic factory, and also a good working environment. So, obviously, I would say yes, be curious.”
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