Lewis Hamilton stated that Ferrari needs to improve straight-line performance to be able to face Mercedes this Formula 1 Chinese GP weekend.
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The Briton will start from fourth position in the Sprint race on Saturday, after the Sprint qualifying in Shanghai. Ahead of him are Mercedes drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, as well as McLaren’s Lando Norris.
In the final stage of the session, Hamilton was 0.641s behind Russell and missed by just 0.020s the chance to overtake Norris and start in third position. According to the seven-time champion, most of the gap to the rivals appeared on the circuit’s straights: “I am very pleased with the session, my team did a really, really good job,” Hamilton stated. “My engineers did a fantastic job to recover the car, because in free practice it was a complicated session with the spin, and in Sprint qualifying the car, overall, felt great.”
Despite the positive assessment of the car’s behavior, the British driver pointed out that Ferrari still loses a lot of time on the straights: “We are losing on the straights, and it’s a lot of time to lose. We have a lot of work to do and we need to push hard in Maranello to improve the power,” he said.
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Hamilton also recalled that the team was already aware of this difference compared to Mercedes since last season: “It was something we already knew last year, we thought Mercedes had started development before us, and that’s exactly what happened. They did a fantastic job and we need to react,” he added.
Finally, the Briton highlighted that the Ferrari car has good performance in corners, but the power disadvantage ends up limiting direct competition with rivals: “The car is very good. We can compete with them in the corners, but when you are at a power disadvantage, that’s how things are,” the seven-time Formula 1 champion concluded.
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