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 steered 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 entire weekend in Jeddah was tough and Hamilton was downbeat after ending over half a minute behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
“Nothing constructive to take from [the race], aside from Charles ending on the rostrum, which is nice for the group,” Hamilton mentioned.
“It was horrible. It was not satisfying in any respect. I used to be simply sliding round. First stint, huge understeer, automotive not turning, after which huge deg, after which the second stint, barely higher steadiness, however nonetheless simply no tempo. It was fairly unhealthy.
“I simply lacked grip, I lacked good steadiness. I used to be simply preventing the automotive each nook, and nothing I did would work.”
After 5 races in six weeks, the following race in Miami is a standalone occasion on Might 4, however Hamilton doesn’t anticipate finding any important options to his difficulties in that point.
“[Leclerc] has been driving this automotive for a very long time, so he positively is aware of it fairly effectively. There’s a lot within the knowledge, for certain. Actually, it doesn’t look massively totally different within the knowledge, simply that you just’re slower by way of the corners.
“I believe I’ll wrestle with this in Miami. I don’t understand how lengthy I’ll wrestle for, nevertheless it’s positively painful … In the meanwhile 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 totally different set-ups. We’ll must look and see whether or not that set-up is the best way the automotive likes to be set. Him and his facet are positively additionally doing an excellent 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 wanting on the automotive for solutions.
“No, it’s not. In qualifying it’s me, extracting efficiency. Within the race, I actually tried all the things, and the automotive simply didn’t wish to go any faster.”
