Hamilton: « If we qualify better, we'll win races »
Despite a disappointing 12th-place qualifying, Lewis Hamilton concluded his first home race in Ferrari colors in fourth place. The seven-time world champion believes that Ferrari could soon be aiming for victory with better qualifying.
Lewis Hamilton made a great comeback in the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix by finishing fourth after starting 12th on the grid. This performance should restore confidence for the seven-time world champion as he continues his season with Ferrari.
The weekend had nonetheless started badly for his first home race in Scuderia colors. Hamilton and his teammate Charles Leclerc failed to reach Q3, finishing in 12th and 11th places in qualifying in front of the Tifosi.
A poor performance that had deeply affected the Briton: « I feel really disappointed, devastated that we couldn't make it to Q3. The reason why it's so hard is seeing everyone who worked so hard in the garage, being in Italy for my first Italian race with Ferrari and not making it to Q3, it's really hard to swallow », he stated after the qualifying on Saturday.
Hamilton notably explained that he lacked grip with his second set of soft tires in Q2: « For some reason, I just didn't have any more grip and couldn't go any faster ». A problem he didn't have to worry about on Sunday, as these tires simply weren't used during the race.
Optimal strategy and beautiful comeback
But on Sunday, the British champion turned his disappointment into satisfaction. Despite a difficult start where he lost a position to young Kimi Antonelli, Hamilton remained patient and took advantage of an alternate strategy.
Indeed, unlike the majority of the field who started on medium tires, he opted for hard tires to execute a longer first stint. This wise choice was bolstered by perfect timing during the race interruptions. He notably benefited from a VSC and then a safety car deployed after Kimi Antonelli retired due to a throttle failure on his Mercedes.
In the final laps of the race, with fresher tires, Hamilton successively overtook George Russell, Alex Albon, and Charles Leclerc to clinch fourth place behind the winner, Max Verstappen, as well as the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
« I really didn't expect to finish fourth today. I didn't know where we might end up given that we were so far behind, but the car was really excellent. The team did a fantastic job with the strategy, and they were flawless », said the British driver after the finish.
The seven-time world champion also praised the improvement in the quality of exchanges with his race engineer, Riccardo Adami: « I think we are making slow progress, and Riccardo and I have done a fantastic job in terms of communication. I was calm, so I think he was calm too, and the team was calm in executing the strategy. The pit stops were excellent ».
Indeed, the radio communications between the Italian engineer and the British champion have sometimes been tense. However, the two men have committed to improving their dialogue, and this effort is already beginning to produce positive results according to his statements.
A performance filled with hope
The performance in the race at Imola offers encouraging prospects for Ferrari. Hamilton did not hide it on the radio after crossing the line: "Let's keep pushing. If we can improve our qualifying and race like that, then we will win," he motivated his team.
The British champion nevertheless regretted that the safety car was not removed more quickly: I was hoping for a few more laps. Obviously, the safety car made us lose time, otherwise we might have been able to fight for a podium.
In fact, the safety car neutralized the race for seven laps. At the restart, with only ten laps remaining of the scheduled 63 and as he was in seventh position behind Russell, Hamilton was unable to make up the gap to the McLarens. He crossed the finish line about 14 seconds behind Piastri, who completed the podium.
Progress to be realized
This fourth place is his best result since joining Ferrari. For the Briton, it confirms the progress made by the team and his adaptation to the SF-25: « It was so satisfying to finally have the right settings and this connection with the car throughout the race. I'm over the moon. It would have been great to have a few more laps to aim for the podium », he said.
After this encouraging performance at the Enzo e Dino Ferrari circuit in Imola, Lewis Hamilton and Scuderia will attempt to confirm their progress during the second leg of the triple header in Monaco this weekend, where the goal will clearly be to improve qualifying performance to give themselves every chance of aiming for victory.
