'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
A downbeat Lewis Hamilton fronted the media after the first day of running in the F1 Austrian GP and declared that Ferrari wouldn't be at the front this weekend after the upgrades had an underwhelming effect.
The 2025 F1 season has been a disappointing one for Ferrari in general, as the team has not lived up to the pre-season expectations. The team almost won the championship last season and dragged McLaren to the last race of the year. This year, however, a change of concept has been the team's bane.
The car that was a perennial frontrunner and won multiple races cannot compete at the front this season. All this time, pressure seems to be mounting on Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur. This weekend the team brought upgrades, and the expectation was that it would have some positive effect.
Trending
After running them in FP1 and FP2, Lewis Hamilton does not think so. By the end of the day, Lewis Hamilton was almost a second behind Lando Norris' best lap, while Charles Leclerc was 6 tenths behind.
The fact that these are the gaps on a 65-second lap is alarming, and talking to F1TV, Lewis Hamilton declared that Ferrari wouldn't be at the front this weekend. He said,
“Not spectacular. We had a problem in the morning with the gearbox, which was obviously difficult, frustrating for everyone in the garage obviously because the boys did a great job, kept topping it up. But you go out, you can only do one lap, and so we didn’t get the long runs."
He added,
"But I think we recovered okay with it, they did a great job changing the gearbox and getting us ready for FP2. Charles was six-tenths off, I was close to a second off, so not ideal. But I think there’s lots of learnings, so I think we will make some changes. Hopefully we can try and get a little bit closer. We won’t be at the front.”
Lewis Hamilton: The car actually doesn’t feel bad
After struggling with gearbox issues in FP1, Lewis Hamilton had a smoother run in FP2. He didn't, however, have the pace to keep up with his teammate or the benchmark time from Lando Norris. The Brit was three tenths off Leclerc's time and around a second off Norris' benchmark.
Talking to the media, the driver said that the car doesn't feel bad as such, but it's just slow at the moment. He said,
“A huge amount of work went on to bring the floor, but as you see it’s not necessarily changed our competitiveness. The car actually doesn’t feel bad, we’re just a huge chunk off pace-wise, so we need to look into that and that’s about it really."
He added,
"We just keep pushing, just trying to dial the car in more and see what we can get, but it’s obviously very close in the top 10 so a tenth could make a difference, so we’ll work towards trying to gain at least that over the night.”
It would be interesting to see if Ferrari can spend some time on the car overnight and bring a few changes that help improve the performance on Saturday.
