Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have both aired their frustrations as Ferrari’s struggles continued at the United States Grand Prix in Austin. The pair finished eighth and tenth, respectively, in sprint qualifying on Friday.
Both drivers had even looked at risk of missing out on the final shootout as they struggled for pace at the Circuit of the Americas. Seven-time world champion Hamilton, who has won the US Grand Prix more times than any other driver (six) and clinched two of his world championships at the iconic circuit, scraped into the final part of sprint qualifying.
The Brit finished just 0.006 seconds ahead of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli in SQ2, and would go on to qualify in eighth place. But having initially looked promising in Austin, he was left ruing a loss of pace as he bemoaned the Scuderia’s performance.
“That was definitely not the pace we were expecting,” Hamilton admitted to F1TV. “I really don’t know. It was looking good in practice, and SQ1 was looking pretty decent, also.
“Then it just started to fall away from us. The car is very, very tough to drive, and this just fell away from us. Eight-tenths is just a mountain to climb.”
Leclerc was also bemused at the lack of pace in the car when speaking to F1TV following sprint qualifying.
“We lost time everywhere,” he explained. “I don’t regret what I’ve done in my lap much. Maybe a little bit more mileage this morning on the medium.
“You can fine-tune the car a little bit better. There might be a tenth in that, a tenth and a half, I don’t know. But it’s not enough. I mean, we are so behind now. I’ll be very surprised if we find something that will make such a jump.
“I hope I’m wrong, but unfortunately, for now, it just seems like it’s the potential of our car. We just need to understand if they understood something that we didn’t, but today was a very poor day.”
Hamilton has struggled with the Ferrari throughout his first season with the constructor and is yet to record a podium finish with the Italian giants. Barring winning the Chinese sprint race back in March, it has proven to be a year to forget for the 40-year-old, who currently sits sixth in the standings with an unassailable 211-point deficit on championship leader Oscar Piastri.
Leclerc has fared slightly better, finishing second in Monaco as well as third in Saudi Arabia, Spain, Austria and Belgium, and sits a place ahead of his team-mate in the championship standings as a result – 48 points clear of Hamilton (173 to 125).
The fortunes of both Ferraris has ultimately declined further since the summer break. Hamilton and Leclerc both retired from the Dutch GP at the end of August, with the Monegasque driver going on to finish fourth, ninth and sixth at Monza, Azerbaijan and Singapore respectively.
Meanwhile, Hamilton secured a sixth-place finish at his Italian GP debut for Ferrari before back-to-back eighth-place finishes in Baku and Singapore. The pair’s frustrations are now continuing to Austin, which looks set to be a good track for Max Verstappen and the McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.