Lewis Hamilton says this year’s Ferrari is the most difficult car he’s driven in a wet Silverstone spot after finishing fourth in the UK’s Grand Prix.
Ferrari hopes went high in qualifying on Saturday after an impressive, dry pace with both low and high fuel, but ended with a disappointment with Hamilton fifth and teammate Charles Lecrate sixth. The rainy weather provided an opportunity to make quick progress, but Hamilton declined after putting early pressure on the ultimate winner Rand Norris, and later failed to fill the gap with Nico Halkenberg.
“I think it’s a difficult day for you guys,” Hamilton said. “It wasn’t the outcome I wanted, but I still got some points…it was the most difficult car I’ve driven here in these conditions.
“I kept (Norris) under a lot of pressure. I had a chance at Rand on 15 turns. After that I just struggled to stay. The tires fell in large quantities.
“In the end I learned a lot. There’s a lot from that day. It’s the second time I’ve driven this car in a wet place. I can’t even express how difficult it is. It’s not a car that likes those conditions.
“But there’s a lot of data to get a lot of data from now on. For me, there’s an element of this car that can enter next year, so it’s about sitting with people designing their cars for next year.”
Fred Vasser, the headmaster of the Ferrari team, admits that the team did not make perfect calls in their strategy, but points out that there are other factors that made decision-making a challenge.
“Now, that’s probably because one lap was too early (to fit a slick), he went straight on turns 3 and 4 and lost 4-5 seconds on those two corners,” Vasseur said. “But (Fernando) Alonso had previously fallen into the pits, but he was already faster and faster at the horns than all man-in-the-middles.
“It’s always too late if you wait for others to do it before you, and I think it’s very easy to say the race “the first pit stop will be better than a lap before the second pit stop and a lap after.”
“But honestly, when you have to make a decision at the pit wall, it’s always tricky because you have to always expect it. And on top of that, we lost Lewis’ GPS throughout the race.
