Lewis Hamilton delivers glum verdict about Ferrari after F1 Spanish GP Free practice

Lewis Hamilton was a bit disappointed with how the first day of running in the F1 Spanish GP went, as the driver admitted that it wasn't much fun driving the car on Friday. This is a crucial weekend for all teams, as this will be where the FIA technical directive comes into effect. As a part of the directive, the flexing of the front wing was going to be significantly reduced from 15mm to 10mm.

Ferrari was one of the teams that had not invested too much into flexi-wings and hence was expected to have a better run this time around, as other teams got pegged back a little. Hamilton did start the weekend well in FP1, where he was third in the standings and had a couple of tenths on Charles Leclerc.

Things changed in FP2, however, as the driver was around a couple of tenths slower than teammate Leclerc. He'll finish in P11 for the session, and talking to the media afterwards, conceded that he didn't have a good day overall. As reported by F1.com, he said:

"Not fun. It’s a beautiful place, the weather has been amazing, but no, not a good day. I wouldn’t say that I’m motivating the team at the moment. You just keep your head down and keep working away. You just don’t give up. You keep going, you keep pushing, you keep trying to focus on solving the issues, which we’ll try to do."

"But you arrive on Friday and are hoping for a good day, and it doesn’t go well. Then you have a weekend in Monaco, where suddenly the car feels great. Honestly, I thought the car was going to be good today. It wasn’t too bad in P1, but P2 was much worse. Naturally, that’s frustrating for everyone, but we had some problems, which meant we were losing some downforce."

Charles Leclerc is happier with the day compared to Lewis Hamilton

Charles Leclerc was happier with the day compared to Lewis Hamilton. The Ferrari driver had a decent run in both FP1 and FP2, but what stood out the most was the fact that the car had a competitive long-run pace, which should help in the race. He said (via F1):

“Honestly, it was a bit more positive than what we expected coming here, so that is good. There is more performance in the car, which I hope we will unlock tomorrow, come Qualifying. Yeah, there is still quite a bit of work to be done, but I don’t think that we are too far out. We’ll focus on a few areas tonight, and let’s see tomorrow.”

Hamilton has had a decent run in the sprints with Ferrari, where he has won a race and secured a podium as well. His run in the Grand Prix has not been as fruitful, and the driver will be looking to build on that soon.