Ferrari boss puts down Hamilton complaints – Lewis Hamilton was hoping that his favourite F1 circuit at Silverstone would boost his flagging first year with the Ferrari team. The seven times world champion did achieve his best finish of the season to date, coming home in fourth place behind the jubilant Nico Hulkneberg.
In his post race interviews Lewis was critical of Ferrari’s strategy in the race together with capabilities of the SF-25 the Scuderia have delivered for him to drive. “We lost a lot of places through strategy. I’ not really sure how I was P4 and then came out [after a tyre change] P8. So that made life difficult.
“Then I stopped early hoping for a big undercut and Jeez it was so tricky. This car does not like those conditions at all. A big snap and wide in turn three, lost me a ton of time…. Lots of mistakes, it was chaos out there.”
Vasseur rejects Hamilton claim about the Ferrari car
When asked what he meant over team radio when describing the car as snappy, Hamilton revealed: “Its the worst feeling. Its when you can’t sit back and can’t be comfortable you can lean on the rear end. Its constantly snappy and you have just no confidence.”
Hamilton added that his car was “unbelievably tricky” to drive and is the “the most difficult car I’ve driven here” at Silverstone. Lewis called for the team to address these issues to ensure next years Maranello offering does not suffer from the same capricious characteristics.
When informed of his drivers comments about the SF-25 being “the most difficult”, Fred Vasseur smiled replying, “I think Max did [said] the same,” before contradicting Hamilton’s assertion that the car was “constantly snappy. I didn’t have time to discuss with Lewis about the balance, but I think from the car, and he said this in the radio, ‘very snappy’, but it was not always true.”
Vasseur went on to point out only McLaren this year have a car that appears consistent in different conditions and on varying circuit layouts. Fred admits the rest of the teams are affected more by tyre wear which alters the pace and handling at the start and end of each stint stating “but let me discuss [all this] with Lewis.”
Ferrari boss admits strategic blunders
Ferrari suffer extreme criticism from the Italian media, who are so passionate about success for the Scuderia, they are treated as a national treasure. Hamilton’s comments will appear across the back pages on Monday, something Vasseur is keen to avoid without having to silence his drivers from any criticism of the team.
Vasseur admitted there would be teams up and down the pit lane with regrets over how they handled the changeable conditions, admitting Ferrari’s strategy at times was not at its best. “I’m not sure that the pure pace is the main issue today,” Vasseur explained. “What is true is that, on Charles at least, is that the race was done on lap one.
“We made the call to pick for slicks, and then the main issue we had today was that we struggled a lot when we were in the dirty air to overtake, and then we are much faster [after overtaking],” said the Ferrari boss who claimed things were not so bad when his drivers were in clean air.
“It was a difficult weekend. Difficult for the strategy today. I think everybody has tons of regrets – except Norris, probably, and Nico [Hulkenberg], but when we finish the race like this, you have always had the feeling that if I had pitted one lap before, one lap after, it would have been much better, but let’s be focused on quali and the championship,” said Vasseur agreeing with Hamilton’s assessment of the team’s strategic calls.
Schumacher SLAMS “dirty” Piastri
Hamilton mistake hands Hulkenberg comfortable lead
Nico Hulkenberg was under pressure from Hamilton in the closing stages of the Grand Prix but he conceded Ferrari did him a favour by calling Lewis in for fresh tyres. “Then I think we made a really good call by stopping one lap later than he did for the slicks, and we gained I think around ten seconds. That gap was crucial. From there onwards, felt like a pretty long 10, 11, 12 laps, whatever it was. But from there onwards, I knew we have every chance to get this result. We just needed to keep it on the road while pushing,” said the German delighted with is first ever F1 podium in fifteen years of racing.
Hulkenberg’s delight was further pain for Hamilton’s as his move to Ferrari has now broken a consecutive eleven podiums in Silverstone. Hamilton’s team mate Charles Leclerc agreed the lack of pace was Ferrari’s prime difficulty today and that his stop for slick tyres at the start of the race was less consequential.
“I mean, for sure this did not help, however we were kind of nowhere the whole race. I was a second off and on top of that I was doing lots of mistakes,” said the Monegasque driver. Leclerc admitted the gamble at the start for dry weather tyres was his mistake, saying “No, I’m not happy with the decision. That was my decision. I thought the first and second sector was kind of for slicks. The third sector was wet.
Leclerc blames lack of pace in SF-25
“But I expected it, I had seen it. But I expected the track to dry up a lot quicker. It did not. And I think we were [amongst] quite a few to have done that mistake of thinking that it would dry up quickly. This is part of the reason why we had a bad race.”
Charles was demanding answers to a number of questions and the team were in for a late night given he wanted them before he left for him last night. “I would say that the biggest part was the lack of pace. And on that I want the answers before going back home. So, I’ll work hard to try and understand what was going on.”
Lewis Hamilton improved his team mate statistics at the British Grand Prix, he is now 4-8 down in qualifying, but a miserable 2-10 behind on race classifications.
McLaren now blame Verstappen for Piastri penalty
Oscar Piastri has been the model Formula One driver since arriving in the sport at the start of 2023. The previous summer he had a very public spat with Alpine to whom he was contracted as a junior driver, yet the fallout as reported in the media landed square on the disorganised French F1 team’s legal department.
Having been surprised by Fernando Alonso quitting the team, Alpine quickly announced on social media that their junior driver Oscar Piastri would replace the outgoing world champion. Within 90 minutes, the young Aussie hit back stating he would not be joining the Alpine team the following season.
Lacking confidence in the Renault backed F1 project, Piastri had secured a contract behind the scenes with the McLaren F1 team which was subsequently verified as valid by the Contract Recognition Board (CRB). In an underperforming McLaren car, Piastri delivered a decent rookie season scoring half the points of his experienced team mate Lando Norris….. READ MORE
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