Ferrari left the Miami Formula 1 GP with a feeling of missed opportunity. Charles Leclerc finished sixth, while Lewis Hamilton took seventh after a complicated race, that was before a twenty-second penalty was applied by the FIA stewards to Leclerc for leaving the track and gaining an unfair advantage, which dropped him to P8 and at the same time promoted Hamilton to P6.
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The performance could have been better, especially given the pace shown at the start of the race. However, mistakes and damage compromised the final result, leaving the team out of the fight for higher positions.
Leclerc acknowledged that a personal mistake was decisive for the drop in result: “The start and the race overall were good and we were fighting for the podium. In the end, I made a mistake that cost me several positions,” said the Monegasque before being penalized.
Hamilton also had his race impacted right on the first lap: “What happened at the start affected the whole race and, with the damage I had, P7 was the best possible result,” he said, also before his teammate’s penalty. The Briton assessed the weekend as challenging but pointed out positive aspects in the car, reinforcing the need for continuous development.
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The team principal, Fred Vasseur, detailed the difficulties faced by both sides of the garage. According to him, Hamilton had to manage issues such as overheating and reduce pace to finish the race. Leclerc showed good performance in clean air but lost consistency when entering traffic, something that had also been observed in the Sprint race.
Despite the limitations, Vasseur highlighted positive aspects, such as good starts and updates that worked as expected. Still, he emphasized that the team needs to improve consistency, traffic management, and the ability to extract the maximum from the car in the upcoming stages.
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