Ferrari endured another wretched race, this time at the British Grand Prix where even Lewis Hamilton’s magic at Silverstone could not save them from car woes and strategy blunders
Lewis Hamilton is usually so comfortable at a rainy Silverstone but felt like he was in “no-man’s land” in his flawed and frustrating Ferrari. The seven-time champ matched his best Grand Prix result of the year on Sunday but tore apart his car and team’s strategy afterwards.
Hamilton was clearly gutted to have missed out on a first podium in red, unable to catch Nico Hulkenberg in the Sauber late on. “It’s the worst feeling,” he fumed.
“When the car is constantly snapping, you just have no confidence. The ultimate goal is to try and build up confidence in the car and get faster and faster over time. It’s like building a wall and then knocking it down. When you can’t build that confidence you’re not really going anywhere. You’re kind of in no man’s land. That’s how I felt for most of the race.”
Ferrari’s strategy decisions have come under intense scrutiny for years and there will be another inquest after an opportunity missed at the British Grand Prix. He dropped from fourth to eighth place with his first pit stop, but the second was even more egregious.
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Hamilton was called in for slick tyres too early after the rain stopped, when he was reeling in Hulkenberg having already dispatched Lance Stroll. It was still too wet on track and he was sliding everywhere, giving the German a much bigger gap after he pitted a lap later.
From there, Hamilton had too little time to close the gap and said: “We lost time and a lot of places through strategy. “I stopped early in the hope of a big undercut and jeez, it was so tricky. This car does not like these conditions at all. A big snap and I went wide in turn three and it lost me a ton of time. There was lots of mistakes. It was not a good day.”
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Team boss Frederic Vasseur explained that Ferrari’s GPS system had failed 10 laps in, meaning they were making some of their strategy calls “blind”. But the pervasive problem for Hamilton continues to be his car, which he said was “the most difficult I’ve driven here in these conditions”.
The Brit is one of Formula 1’s true masters in wet weather but his brilliance was blunted by a Ferrari machine that just would not cooperate.
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Time is running out for Hamilton, 40, to challenge for the eighth F1 title he craves – he will not be doing so this year. And for next season, he has made it clear he wants a much different car. He said: “Ultimately, I learnt a lot from today.
“There’s a lot to take, it’s only my second time driving this car in the wet and I can’t even express to you how hard it is. It’s not a car that likes those conditions. For me, I have to sit down with the people that design this car for next year because there’s elements from this car that cannot go on to the following year.”
