Lewis Hamilton stated that Ferrari will still need several months to reduce the gap to the Mercedes and Red Bull engines in Formula 1. Although the Italian team introduced a new engine specification at the Austrian GP, the seven-time world champion highlighted that this type of development takes time and cannot be resolved immediately.
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The Maranello team debuted the update at the Red Bull Ring and achieved performance above expectations at the British GP, where Charles Leclerc won the race after the Briton secured pole for the Sprint. Still, the main limitation of the SF-26 remains the power unit, which uses a smaller turbocharger than its competitors, favoring acceleration out of corners but compromising top speed on the straights.
The seven-time F1 champion explained that the role of the drivers is to provide information to guide the engineers’ work. “When it comes to the engine, there’s not much the driver can do. It’s the factory staff and all their experience who need to figure out what changes are necessary to unlock the power unit’s potential,” he said.
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“On the driver’s side, every weekend we do a debrief on what we feel in terms of drivability, from the moment we first accelerate to gear changes, gear ratios, and everything that needs to be changed. We are always asking for changes, or at least highlighting these points so the team can go back, test in the simulator, and see if that can bring performance gains,” he said.
Hamilton also mentioned one of Ferrari’s main complaints in comparisons with rivals. “Sometimes it seems like there’s a lack of battery energy at the end of the straights, because this shows up in data overlays with Mercedes and Red Bull, so we meet to discuss this. But it’s important to understand that it takes months to design and implement changes, also ensuring reliability. The most impressive thing is that the team built a reliable car and a reliable power unit, and now we can evolve from that base thanks to the regulation change.”
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