Fifth on the grid for the Dutch Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton believes that Ferrari’s difficulty in making its tires work largely explains its delay behind McLaren and Mercedes.
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Lewis Hamilton regained better feelings behind the wheel of his Ferrari during qualifying at Zandvoort, but not enough to get involved in the fight for pole position. The Briton took fifth place, 0.381 seconds behind Lando Norris.
In front of him, the two McLarens and the two Mercedes monopolized the top four positions. Hamilton is thus the first driver from another team on the grid, while his teammate Charles Leclerc will start just behind him in sixth position.
However, Ferrari had shown a few hours earlier that it had interesting potential, with Leclerc finishing second in the Sprint. Hamilton believes that the tires played a decisive role in the gap observed in qualifying.
“I think the tires were the main culprit, explains the seven-time world champion. I really struggled to make them work.”
Hamilton had to “rebuild” his confidence
The weekend had started well for Hamilton. Fourth in the only practice session, the Ferrari driver was satisfied with the behavior of his SF-26.
But a slight setup change before the Sprint qualifying deeply altered his feeling. Bound by parc fermé rules, Hamilton then had to keep this configuration for the Sprint, which he finished in seventh place.
Once parc fermé was reopened on Saturday afternoon, Ferrari reverted to a different setup. The car immediately proved more convincing, but Hamilton explains he had to gradually rebuild the lost confidence.
“I was much more satisfied with the car in qualifying, fortunately, but this kind of situation doesn’t help when it comes to building your confidence” he explains.
“It’s like laying one brick after another to build a wall, then it gets destroyed. You then lose that confidence I had during free practice. I didn’t have it during Sprint qualifying and had to start practically from scratch.”
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Ferrari unable to prepare its tires like McLaren and Mercedes
While the Ferrari’s behavior improved, Hamilton encountered another problem: managing to get his tires into their optimal operating window right at the start of the fast lap.
The Briton believes he lost most of his gap in the first sector. On several occasions, he also locked his front right wheel under braking for the first corner.
“The tires weren’t working in the first sector, and that’s where we were losing most of our time. Then they got better as the lap went on.”
Hamilton is especially surprised by McLaren and Mercedes’ ability to exploit their tires much faster.
“If you just do an out lap, the tires still aren’t ready for the first corner. It’s crazy. So you don’t have the confidence to attack that corner, and that was the main difference with the cars ahead of us.”
Ferrari therefore had to spend more time preparing its tires before launching a real attempt, a potentially problematic situation as rain threatened to fall at the end of Q3.
“We couldn’t do an out lap and then immediately launch a flying lap because the tires were cold. I don’t know how McLaren and Mercedes managed it. Fortunately, the rain didn’t come and we were able to do another lap.”
Hamilton also suspects the lack of temperature in the tires caused his wheel lock-ups. Despite these difficulties, the Briton is much more optimistic for the race after regaining a Ferrari with which he feels more confident.
From fifth position, he will now try to take advantage of the SF-26’s pace over long stints to threaten the McLarens and Mercedes ahead of him.
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