Hamilton finishes 7th in qualifying. On board his Ferrari, he had to make a step forward. In F1, confidence with the mechanical means is crucial and not having it means being slow. On the eve of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the British spoke precisely about this aspect, underlining the importance of this step towards the other decisive one. A crucial scenario to reach the performance of his teammate and help the cause of the Maranello team.
The relationship between Richard and Lewis is excellent
In the third free practice session in Jeddah, Lewis actually seemed more comfortable with his car. Listening to the radio communications, however, it is often noted that, unlike Leclerc , the seven-time world champion needs to be better trained on all the controls of the SF-25 . It is said that Hamilton does not get along very well with Riccardo Adami and that the pair are not very close.
We are talking about a real joke, as the two are in close harmony and always communicate in the right way. If the Black King has many questions to ask, it does not mean that his engineer does not provide the necessary information. Lewis’ precision and desire to learn is very high. With Peter Bonnington, former race engineer, was there less need to talk? Yes … but the reason is quite simple after 12 years spent in Mercedes.
In almost two and a half decades, all the secrets of the German cars were already memorized. For this reason, the useless controversies or the desire to find discord where there is none, in addition to being cloying, is quite useless. Hamilton, we were saying, to return to the track, in Fp3 suffered the same problem of tire activation as his teammate. This SF-25 does not know how to turn them on like the McLaren , especially when the temperatures are more extreme.
Lewis sees a step forward, where?
The qualifying result, the fifth of the season, certainly cannot satisfy the British driver. We are talking about a seventh place finish that makes you suffer, especially if the driver you “stole” the place from will precede you on the grey. We are talking about Carlos Sainz, who on board the Williams, for just 37 thousandths, manages to stay ahead of the seven-time world champion. Feeling with the car? It seems to be always the same for the moment.
Before knowing Lewis’ words, it is worth thinking about something. Both in terms of facial expressions and gestures, and in terms of the words uttered, the former Mercedes seems a bit confused, exactly as he appears on the track, often a bit too disoriented by this challenge that is beating him. It was not easy to come to Ferrari, but without a doubt, the Englishman, was not expecting such a complicated challenge.
Lewis Hamilton spoke without mincing words about the complexity of a qualifying session that, once again, did not see him as a protagonist at all. A difficult weekend from the beginning to Friday, in which he never really managed to get into the game. Session after session, the progress was minimal and the feeling with the SF-25 remained distant from what he would actually like.
For this reason, reaching Q3 was almost a relief. A result that, given the premises, was not so obvious. The last attempt in qualifying was not particularly brilliant, but Lewis recognizes that there has been some progress, even if still insufficient to aspire to something more. He is left with a bit of regret for the final lap, where he would have liked to do better, but at least he managed to stay in the top ten.
Leave a Reply