Hamilton reports an underperforming component on his Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton finished seventh at the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka, far behind his teammate Charles Leclerc, who finished fourth. The seven-time world champion has identified a specific technical issue with his car that has been hindering him since the start of the season.

A technical deficit identified

After qualifying in eighth position and a relatively solitary race, Hamilton revealed that an element at the rear of his Ferrari is not functioning properly, which disadvantages him and affects his performance compared to his teammate.

« I did my best today. I was really lacking performance compared to the cars ahead of me. We found something on the car that hasn’t been working properly for three races, so I hope that once this issue is fixed, I can achieve better results. We’re losing just over a tenth per lap because of this. », Hamilton told the media after the race.

This technical problem seems to have persisted since the Australian Grand Prix and is costing the British driver more than a tenth of a second per lap. The Italian team has now identified the source of the problem but has not yet determined its exact cause, according to the British driver.

Technical and strategic constraints

The technical situation of the Scuderia is all the more complicated because the disqualification of its two drivers at the Chinese Grand Prix, for excessive wear of the plank under the car (Hamilton) and insufficient weight (Leclerc), has forced the team to revise its setup. The cars are now running higher than planned, which reduces aerodynamic downforce and thus performance. A necessary compromise to avoid another exclusion, but one that penalizes the drivers. Indeed, the current generation F1 cars are designed to be driven as close to the ground as possible to maximize aerodynamic load, but this setup risks premature wear of the plank under the car.

Hamilton also mentioned the absence of a safety car during the race in Japan as a factor that limited his strategic options: “There was no safety car, so it didn’t really change much. I think the medium tires were clearly better for the start of the race, especially with these cool conditions,” explained Hamilton.

Without a neutralization, any attempt to climb back up was thus compromised. Despite a successful overtake of the Racing Bulls of the French rookie, Isack Hadjar, early in the race, the Briton was unable to climb further up the standings, mainly due to the lack of pace of his car and the difficulty of overtaking on the Suzuka circuit.

Ferrari, fourth force on the grid

Despite these difficulties, Hamilton remains optimistic for the upcoming races, hoping for a quick resolution of the technical issue. However, he acknowledges that Ferrari is behind the leaders: “I think we are probably the fourth force, clearly, at the moment. We are a bit behind the others in terms of performance, especially in terms of aerodynamic downforce, so we have work to do to close the gap,” he admitted.

The British Champion believes that the gap with the best teams is between three and four tenths of a second per lap, a considerable deficit in Formula 1. To close this gap, Ferrari will need to make significant improvements to its car in the upcoming races.

Indeed, the technical upgrades promised by the team could be a game-changer, but their timeline remains uncertain. « They don’t know. », admitted Hamilton when asked when these improvements would arrive.

Positive elements at Suzuka

The seven-time world champion draws, however, positive aspects from his weekend: « I am relatively satisfied with the race pace I had, which is good considering what I have. Yes, otherwise a good performance from the team. Ricciardo and I, I think we’ve really done a good job, and the engineers and mechanics also did a great job, so yes, we continue on this path. »

For Hamilton, the main focus now is to resolve this specific technical issue before the Bahrain Grand Prix and to improve his performance in qualifying, an essential aspect for achieving better results in the race. If Ferrari manages to correct these flaws and introduce effective developments, the Italian team could potentially close in on the leading teams and allow them to return to the podium. In the meantime, the British driver will need to continue maximizing each session, as he did in Suzuka.