Lewis Hamilton had a challenging F1 Chinese GP following an encouraging China Sprint Race victory, finishing sixth before being disqualified alongside Scuderia Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc due to a technical infringement.
Struggle against teammate Charles Leclerc despite lap one incident
Hamilton and Leclerc qualified for a third-row lockout, starting in P5 and P6 for the Chinese GP. After catching Max Verstappen, who qualified P4, Hamilton angled to take the apex of turn two and clipped the end plate of Leclerc’s SF-25 as the Monegasque driver had a snap of oversteer as he used the inside kerb in a fight against Verstappen.
The Ferrari pitwall deemed the car to be in good enough condition not to pit for a new front wing despite losing a significant amount of downforce.
Even with the damage to his car, the Monegasque driver kept pace with Hamilton throughout the first stint on medium-compound tyres. On lap 21, Lewis Hamilton and the team decided to let Leclerc through in the belief that he had the pace to chase down Russell, who was ahead in P3.
When asked in a the print media zone to reflect on his struggle with his teammate, Hamilton recognised his lack of pace compared to Leclerc and revealed that the swap was his idea.
“He just had more pace than me. I was struggling with the car, so I told the team that I was going to let him by. It was my idea.”
Lack of pace compared to a very successful Friday and Saturday
In the dry conditions in Shanghai, the car looked quite strong right out of the gate for Hamilton’s Chinese GP in comparison to the team’s last outing in Melbourne for the Australian GP.
In FP1, Hamilton found his footing with the car and delivered a respectable P4. Sprint Qualifying saw the British driver top the session and set a track record as well.
The Sprint on Saturday showcased the SF-25’s potential against Max Verstappen’s Red Bull and Oscar Piastri’s McLaren. In high tyre degradation conditions, the Ferrari was rapid despite significant tyre graining on the newly resurfaced Shanghai Audi International Circuit.
The changes made to the car between the Sprint and the Grand Prix Qualifying sessions proved to be unsuccessful, as Hamilton was only able to manage P5.
Hamilton commented on the drop-off of pace between sessions.
“We [Charles and I] both made set-up changes going into qualifying. One particular one was the wrong for us, and we both had it. For me, the balance was completely off.”
Such a noticeable change in Ferrari’s race pace between Saturday and Sunday raised questions about how narrow the performance window is on the SF-25.
“The window is quite narrow. But the performance is there; I think, in hindsight, we should have left the car as something similar to what we had in the Sprint, but we’re always trying to move forward.”
Despite later double disqualifications, it was an encouraging outing for Ferrari
Both Hamilton and Leclerc ended up with post-race technical infringement disqualifications following their P5 and P6 finishes. Losing an endplate put Leclerc’s Ferrari 1kg under the legal minimum weight. Hamilton’s floor showed excessive wear, resulting in his Ferrari’s skid block ~0.5mm under the 9mm limit.
However, this devastating end to the Chinese GP should not be the only takeaway from Hamilton and Ferrari’s outing in China.
The pace that Lewis Hamilton displayed in the Sprint race eased the anxieties that the Australian GP raised for the British driver. Pulling off a decisive victory in the Sprint just six days after finishing P10 in a disappointing Australian GP is sure to instill confidence within the team in the future.
Hamilton was asked whether would take away more positives from this weekend than from his last outing, and he outlined the significance of seeing how the car performs in dry conditions.
“I definitely take more positives from it, I think. I think we got a clear race run in the dry, so I can see where we are performance-wise and see where we have to improve our pace.”
The seven-time World Champion then reiterated the intimidating performance of the other top teams so far, in reference to McLaren’s MCL39, Red Bull’s RB21, and Mercedes’ W16.
He is confident Ferrari can close the gap, however.
“The guys up ahead of us are pretty quick. So we’ve got some work to do to close the gap. It’s going to be tough; it’s going to be close.”
