Lewis Hamilton was left baffled by the Ferrari SF-26 inability to sufficiently warm its tyres up over an out-lap at Formula 1’s Dutch Grand Prix.
Both Hamilton and Charles Leclerc required two warm-up laps for their tyres to be in the right temperature window at Zandvoort. They struggled to fifth and sixth respectively in Q3, equalling their worst performance this summer, three to four tenths adrift of polesetter Lando Norris.
“I think the tyres were the biggest culprit today, just really struggling to get the tyres to work,” Hamilton commented after qualifying. “They're not really in in the first sector, that's where we lost most of our time, and then they get better through the lap.
“Just do an out-lap and a prep lap, and the tyres are still not ready for Turn 1, it's just nuts. So, you just don't have the confidence to attack Turn 1. I think that was the biggest difference today.”
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images
Asked if his car even could have done a flying lap after the out-lap, the Briton said: “Couldn't do an out-lap and straight in. The tyres were cold, basically. So, I don't know how they did that at the end. We couldn't. So, luckily the rain didn't come, and we got another lap in.”
When it was later suggested other teams were doing a better job, the seven-time world champion could only concur: “They definitely did yesterday, and they did today as well.”
Leclerc had a similar assessment of the situation following a Q3 session where he held fourth place after his first run before dropping down to sixth by the time the chequered flag was waved.
“I felt like [doing two warm-up laps] was the right choice,” the Monegasque said. “Obviously, from the car I don't have a very good view of what's happening around, but it feels like they did a bigger step on the second run than we did. I'll have to look into it.
“With how the tyres felt after my warm-up lap, I don't regret doing the prep lap, especially because the rain didn't fall more on the second lap, so it's not that we had different conditions. They managed to put the tyres in temperature for the first lap, we didn't manage to do that.”
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
But this isn’t the end of the world for Ferrari, with Hamilton branding his team-mate’s race pace as “particularly good” in the sprint and expecting even better on Sunday.
“It's definitely a tendency where we seem to be faster in the race than we are in qualifying, and qualifying most of the time is a bit more of a struggle,” Leclerc pondered. “Yesterday was a bit of an exception and we were strong in qualifying, but otherwise we always seem to be a bit on the back foot.
“We've got to work on that, it's not black and white and it's not as easy as saying, ‘OK, I'll take a little bit from the race and put it in qualifying’ or vice versa. We're trying to make the car as fast as possible, but for the characteristics we have it works a little bit better in the race than in qualifying. I prefer that way than the other way, but on a track like this [where overtaking is difficult], it doesn't help.”
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