Unhappy with his SF-25\u2019s balance in practice in Mexico, Lewis Hamilton says he does \u201cnot want to race\u201d the car as it was on Friday as he nears the end of a \u201clong year\u201d with Ferrari.<\/p>\n
Hamilton finished Friday\u2019s second practice for the Mexico City Grand Prix fifth on the timesheet, only three-tenths down on pace-setter Max Verstappen. But the Briton wasn\u2019t happy with the setup of his car.<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton: \u201cIt\u2019s been a long year\u201d<\/p>\n
The seven-time World Champion sat out Friday\u2019s opening session as Antonio Fuoco covered one of Ferrari\u2019s mandatory young driver outings in a session that was topped by Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque driver laid down a 1:18.380 to beat Kimi Antonelli by a tenth of a second.<\/p>\n
FP2 saw Hamilton<\/a> as well as eight other race drivers return to the cockpits of their respective cars, with Verstappen setting the pace ahead of Leclerc, 0.153s up. As for Hamilton, he was fifth.<\/p>\n The Briton, though, was anything but happy about his performance on the day.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a long day,\u201d pit lane reporter Ted Kravitz said to Hamilton.<\/p>\n The driver quipped back: \u201cIt\u2019s been a long year.\u201d<\/p>\n A year that has yet to yield a debut podium in red for Hamilton, who could yet record his first-ever season in Formula 1 without a podium result. Already he holds the unwanted record of most races by a new Ferrari driver without standing on the podium.<\/p>\n More on Friday\u2019s action at the Mexico City Grand Prix<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49 Mexican GP: Leclerc tops new-look opening practice<\/a> <\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49 Mexican GP: Verstappen fastest as title charge continues in FP2 as Piastri struggles<\/a><\/p>\n Barring a change of fortune on Saturday, which Hamilton will work on overnight with his engineers, the 40-year-old isn\u2019t expecting miracles in Mexico.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m surprised how relatively close we are given how not great it felt,\u201d he told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets in Mexico. \u201cI mean, every time you come here, the grip is, because of the altitude we\u2019re in we\u2019re all running pretty high downforce, but it\u2019s low, it feels lower than Monza. <\/p>\n \u201cSo you\u2019re sliding around trying to find grip, but it\u2019s just not there. <\/p>\n \u201cBut yeah, it wasn\u2019t disastrous, but obviously because I miss FP1 \u2013 Antonio did a really great job, so nice to be able to watch him drive and experience and have fun in my car, which is really cool \u2013 and then the car was sliding around a lot, so the balance is very open. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got a lot of work to do overnight to try and figure out how to find a more streamlined balance.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cSliding, that\u2019s never fun. Not unless you\u2019re in a rally car. Definitely not in a Formula 1 car.\u201d<\/p>\n Pressed on whether there was a \u201cdanger\u201d in going too far away from Friday\u2019s setup given the track conditions would evolve on Saturday, Hamilton replied: \u201cI mean, there is always a danger of it, but I don\u2019t think it can make it worse. <\/p>\n \u201cTouch wood, but I\u2019d be really surprised if it\u2019s worse.<\/p>\n \u201cWe won\u2019t obviously be silly with the decisions we take. We\u2019ll look through the data tonight and then try and come up with some plans, but I definitely don\u2019t want to race what we had today. <\/p>\n \u201cThe long run balance wasn\u2019t disastrous, but we need to get more from the tyres. I know there is more pace in the car.\u201d<\/p>\n Although Leclerc finished the day ahead of both McLaren drivers, and Hamilton was up on Oscar Piastri, the former reckons McLaren still has an advantage over Ferrari in race pace.<\/p>\n He asked his race engineer Bryan Bozzi: \u201cI guess McLaren are on another planet, no?\u201d <\/p>\n Bozzi replied: Yeah, for now Norris is very fast.\u201d<\/p>\n Hamilton was asked about his teammate\u2019s comment, and replied: \u201cI haven\u2019t seen any of it, so I have no clue, honestly. I saw a GPS of one of the McLarens, but they think they lost a bit time in the high speed. <\/p>\n \u201cSo I don\u2019t know where they\u2019ve lost their pace, because they were at one point, like a second, eight tenths, half a second ahead, and now they\u2019re\u2026 But I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll pull out some good pace tomorrow, they\u2019re a great team.\u201d<\/p>\n Additional reporting by Elizabeth Blackstock<\/p>\n Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n