Lewis Hamilton described his Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as “horrible”, and he doesn’t see a short-term answer to his “painful” struggles this season at Ferrari.
A Dash victory in China advised Hamilton was beginning to become familiar together with his new equipment after 12 years at Mercedes, however that has been adopted by grand prix outcomes of seventh, fifth and seventh over the previous three races. Following optimism in Bahrain that he clicked with the automotive throughout one stint, your complete weekend in Jeddah was tough and Hamilton was downbeat after ending over half a minute behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
“Nothing optimistic to take from [the race], apart from Charles ending on the rostrum, which is nice for the staff,” Hamilton stated.
“It was horrible. It was not fulfilling in any respect. I used to be simply sliding round. First stint, large understeer, automotive not turning, after which large deg, after which the second stint, barely higher stability, however nonetheless simply no tempo. It was fairly dangerous.
“I simply lacked grip, I lacked good stability. I used to be simply preventing the automotive each nook, and nothing I did would work.”
After 5 races in six weeks, the subsequent race in Miami is a standalone occasion on Might 4, however Hamilton doesn’t anticipate finding any vital options to his difficulties in that point.
“[Leclerc] has been driving this automotive for a very long time, so he undoubtedly is aware of it fairly nicely. There’s loads within the information, for positive. Actually, it doesn’t look massively completely different within the information, simply that you simply’re slower by way of the corners.
“I feel I’ll wrestle with this in Miami. I don’t know the way lengthy I’ll wrestle for, however it’s undoubtedly painful … In the intervening time there’s no repair. That is the way it’s going to be for the remainder of the 12 months. So it’s fairly painful.
“I don’t anticipate [a solution], however we do have barely completely different set-ups. We’ll should look and see whether or not that set-up is the best way the automotive likes to be set. Him and his facet are undoubtedly additionally doing a great job of it.”
Hamilton additionally described the bottom impact period of automotive that was launched in 2022 as “the worst” given the difficulties he’s confronted, however admits it’s not merely a case of trying on the automotive for solutions.
“No, it’s not. In qualifying it’s me, extracting efficiency. Within the race, I actually tried every little thing, and the automotive simply didn’t need to go any faster.”
