Lewis Hamilton shared his frustration with Ferrari’s approach to qualifying which ended with another underwhelming result at the Singapore Grand Prix. The seven-time Formula 1 champion will start Sunday’s race at the Marina Bay Circuit sixth, one place ahead of Charles Leclerc.
But while he beat his team-mate, Hamilton gave the air of a man who felt an opportunity had been missed. “The car has been feeling good, generally most of the weekend, and ultimately, I’m disappointed with that result,” he said after qualifying.
Hamilton pointed his finger at his team’s decision to wait for a long time before sending their cars out into the pit lane, often resulting in them having to wait in queue before the get on track which results in them losing a significant amount of tyre temperature. It happened again on Saturday and the Brit made it clear he wants to see Ferrari change that approach.
He said: “Since Q1, the car was feeling good, the tyres were feeling good, and then when we get into Q2, run one was decent, but we are last in the queue often, and then we’re waiting in the queue and losing a lot of temperature in the tyres. Every time we do that, we’re just falling further and further back.
“It happens every weekend, and we’re losing so much temperature, like five or six degrees, and it is really hard to gain that back in the out-lap without using the tyre so much.
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“The guys on pole, they went quicker without waiting in the pit lane, so I think that is something we can improve on for sure. Everyone is trying so hard, but it is definitely disappointing to finish where we are, when there was potential to be higher, but I’ll be on my toes and ready to capitalise on any opportunities.”
Leclerc tried to be innovative in his own approach but admitted afterwards that he had been compromised by a “stupid” experiment. He said: “We never found the solution, unfortunately. Kind of tried to find consistency in that car through the whole weekend and there was no way out. At the end in Q3 I just said, ‘Okay, let’s try something a little bit stupid with the front wing’, try[ing] to rotate the car.
“Anyway, it’s unpredictable with understeer, will still be unpredictable with oversteer but at least I prefer that. Managed to do a good lap on the scrubbed [tyres], then put the new [tyre on] and the feeling was completely different. So, yeah, I didn’t find my way around.”