Lewis Hamilton: Ferrari is falling behind Mercedes significantly because of engine issues.
Lewis Hamilton has indicated that the performance gap between Ferrari and Mercedes is primarily attributed to a shortfall in power unit efficiency after he qualified fourth for the Chinese Grand Prix sprint race on Saturday.
The seven-time champion’s fastest lap was more than 0.6 seconds slower than his former teammate George Russell, who claimed pole position for Mercedes during Friday’s sprint qualifying, ahead of teammate Kimi Antonelli and McLaren’s Lando Norris in third place.
Hamilton believes that Ferrari’s vehicle is competitive with Mercedes’ in cornering but is losing considerable performance due to insufficient power on the straights.
“The car generally felt great, but I think it is on the straights,” Hamilton stated. “It’s a lot of time to be losing. So, yeah, we have a lot of work to do.
“We really have to push hard back in Maranello to enhance power. It was something we were aware of last year, as we thought Mercedes began their development earlier than the rest of us, which they also did last time in 2014.
“So they’ve done an excellent job, and we need to elevate our efforts. We must strive to close that gap.
“I think car-wise, the car feels great. I believe we can compete with them in the corners, but when you’re lacking in power, that’s just how it is.”
Hamilton’s Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc mentioned that he lost 0.5 seconds on the long straight between Turn 13 and Turn 14 due to a suspected battery deployment issue.
After contending with Russell for the lead during the first 12 laps of the opening round in Australia, Leclerc is optimistic that Ferrari will be closer to Mercedes in Saturday’s sprint race.
“It doesn’t really change the picture from where we are,” he remarked. “I think in the race, we should be relatively stronger than we were in qualifying. However, Mercedes appears to still be a step ahead.
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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 very hopeful we can come back tomorrow.”
Despite utilizing its innovative ‘Macarena’ rear wing during Friday’s practice session, Ferrari chose not to implement the design in sprint qualifying.
The wing features an upper element that rotates 180 degrees when straight-line mode is activated, flipping the top flap of the wing upside down.
“I don’t really know why we reverted back,” Hamilton commented on the decision to use Ferrari’s more traditional design in sprint qualifying.
“I think we rushed it to get it here, and it was not intended to be on the cars until I believe it was race four or five, or something like that.
“So they did a great job to bring it here quickly. We only had two of them, and it might have been a bit premature, so we removed it. The car was still great, and we’ll work to try and reintroduce it when it’s ready.”
Source: espn.com
