Overall, Lewis Hamilton was left with mixed feelings after his first F1 Japanese GP qualifying session at Ferrari. The seven times World Champion will start out tomorrow from P8 but is confident that he will be able to move up the standings.
Mixed sensations for Hamilton
Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton was hoping for a better ending to his Q3, but a snap prevented him from improving his time significantly during the final moments of the session, keeping him in the bottom part of the top ten.
On the other hand, the great benchmark set by his teammate Charles Leclerc, who will start from P4, is definitely a good sign for tomorrow’s race, because it confirms the potential of the SF-25.
“Not the greatest but I’m sure that tomorrow we will have a good day,” Hamilton summed up his F1 Japanese GP qualifying.
The recently signed Ferrari driver also revealed that him and his teammate Leclerc had decided for the first time in their partnership to opt for different setups.
“No, I felt pretty good in the car this weekend. I think it’s the first weekend Charles and I have gone in different directions with the set-up. I struggled with understeer for sure.”
Different directions for him and Leclerc
Asked if the different settings on car no 16 and car no 44 might have played a role in the rather different qualifying outcome, Hamilton was on the fence. In fact, while he admitted that Leclerc’s configurations might have been better suited for qualifying, he also highlighted the significance of the actual driver performance and the personal effort the Monegasque had put in to achieve the second row start.
“I think probably for a single lap today, Charles’ direction was a bit better. Charles did a great lap today. Really, really well done to him. I think he outperformed the car maybe a little bit, great lap.”
The former Mercedes driver also recounted his own issues during qualifying, mentioning a lack of feeling with the front of his challenger.
“I don’t know. I’ll find out tomorrow. I am generally happy with the direction that it took. As I said, I struggled with the front end. That’s why I had that snap in the Q3 run.”
More performance to come
In spite of being only two rounds in the Formula 1 season, Hamilton is already looking forward to some additions to his SF-25.
“From my side I didn’t get everything that was needed from the car, but we need to upgrade the car for sure.”
A great discussion topic following the past Australian GP had been the controversial strategical choices taken by the Italian Scuderia. Asked on the matter, Hamilton was hopeful for a better approach to pit stop calls for tomorrow’s F1 Japanese GP
“I’m hoping tomorrow will be better strategy-wise. It’s going to be interesting tomorrow.”
Hamilton also had kind words for the Suzuka crowd, as well as the repave in Sector 1.
“The track is amazing to drive. It’s been awesome. The fans have been incredible. It’s amazing to see how many Ferrari fans are here. Obviously, I wish I was higher up, but it does what it is.
“The track is just incredible in all conditions I don’t know. It’s had more grip all weekend. Hopefully that’s the case tomorrow in the rain. We’ll find out.”
