Lewis Hamilton: Ferrari losing a ‘lot of time’ to Mercedes due to engine
Lewis Hamilton has mentioned Ferrari’s hole to Mercedes is principally due to a deficit in energy unit efficiency after he certified fourth for Saturday’s Chinese Grand Prix dash race.
The seven-time champion’s finest lap was over 0.6 seconds off his former teammate George Russellwho secured pole for Mercedes in Friday’s dash qualifying forward of teammate Kimi Antonelli and McLaren’s Lando Norris in third.
Hamilton believes Ferrari’s automotive is a match for Mercedes’ within the corners however is losing important efficiency due to a lack of energy on the straights.
“The car generally felt great, but I think it is on the straights,” Hamilton mentioned. “It’s a lot of time to be losing. So, yeah, we have a lot of work to do.
“We actually have to push so laborious again in Maranello to enhance on energy. It was one thing that I believe we have been conscious of final yr, that we thought that Mercedes began sooner than the remainder of us, which they did final time as effectively [in 2014].
“So they’ve done a fantastic job, and we’ve got to step up. We’ve got to push to be able to close that gap.
“I believe car-wise, the automotive feels nice. I believe we will compete with them corners, however once you’re down on energy, it is simply the way in which it’s.”
Hamilton’s Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc said he lost 0.5 seconds on the long straight between Turn 13 and Turn 14 due to a suspected issue with battery deployment.
After challenging Russell for the lead in the first 12 laps of the opening round in Australia, Leclerc is hopeful Ferrari will be closer to Mercedes in Saturday’s sprint race.
“It would not actually change the image from the place we’re,” he said. “I believe within the race, we must be comparatively a bit stronger than the place we have been now in qualifying. However, Mercedes appears to be nonetheless a step forward.
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“In qualifying, for some reason, the Mercedes power unit finds a lot of lap time. We don’t quite find that amount of lap time just yet in qualifying, but in the race, we are closer. So I’m so hopeful we can come back tomorrow.”
Despite working its novel ‘Macarena’ rear wing in Friday’s follow session, Ferrari opted towards utilizing the innovation in dash qualifying.
The wing options an higher component that rotates by way of 180 levels when straight-line mode is activated, turning the highest flap of the wing the wrong way up.
“I don’t really know why we went back on it,” Hamilton mentioned of the choice to run Ferrari’s extra standard design in dash qualifying.
“I think we rushed it to get it here, and it was not supposed to be on the cars until I think it was race four or five, or something like that.
“So they did a nice job to rush it right here. We solely had two of them, and it was possibly a little bit untimely, so we took it off. The automotive was nonetheless nice, and we’ll work to attempt to deliver it again when it is prepared.”
