{"id":121266,"date":"2025-09-07T18:07:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T18:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/121266\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T18:07:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T18:07:10","slug":"top-three-off-the-cards-as-not-100-comfortable-with-ferrari-f1-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/121266\/","title":{"rendered":"Top three “off the cards” as “not 100% comfortable” with Ferrari F1 car"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lewis Hamilton<\/a> reckoned he could have finished fifth rather than sixth in Formula 1\u2019s Italian Grand Prix, which in itself was a respectable return given the contentious five-place grid penalty he carried over from Zandvoort.<\/p>\n

Hamilton started 10th and had to make his way past the Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda<\/a> on the opening lap \u2013 with a move the Japanese driver complained was excessively forceful \u2013 then Fernando Alonso<\/a>\u2019s Aston Martin and Gabriel Bortoleto<\/a>\u2019s Sauber<\/a> to reach sixth place behind Mercedes<\/a>\u2019 George Russell<\/a> on the seventh lap.<\/p>\n

Russell\u2019s team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli<\/a>, who started sixth, had made a poor start and fallen out of contention on the opening tour.<\/p>\n

But Ferrari<\/a> didn\u2019t bite at the opportunity to respond to or pre-empt Russell\u2019s stop at the end of lap 27, leaving Hamilton out another 11 laps before bringing him in for hard-compound Pirellis. So not only was there no undercut, Hamilton emerged behind Esteban Ocon<\/a> and Lance Stroll<\/a>, who were extending their first stints even further.<\/p>\n

He was just under five seconds off fifth-placed Russell at the flag while team-mate Charles Leclerc<\/a> was fourth, four seconds behind Oscar Piastri<\/a>\u2019s McLaren<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think overall our performance was fairly decent,\u201d said Hamilton after the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe obviously don’t have the pace of the cars much further ahead, so competing for the top three is off the cards for a while, but we keep pushing and trying to extract more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis weekend built a lot on my confidence with the car, [but] definitely I\u2019m still not 100% comfortable in the car.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lewis <\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari<\/p>\n

Photo by: Kym Illman \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

On the face of it this reads like a capitulation, and a counter-intuitive one at that, since Leclerc qualified fourth and even passed Piastri for third place twice during the opening laps. But actually this was a question of Leclerc trying to hang on after an excellent qualifying performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew my first lap \u2013 I hate to say perfect and I don\u2019t think anyone ever does a perfect lap \u2013 but I think it was as close as what I would want to do during a qualifying lap,\u201d Leclerc had said about his Q3 performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew it would be difficult to beat that attempt on the second timed lap. Which I didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leclerc had driven out of his skin to get close to the two McLarens and the solitary Red Bull but was always going to struggle in the race. As the podium finishers watched highlights of those opening laps in the \u2018green room\u2019 before the ceremonials, Piastri could clearly be heard saying that Leclerc\u2019s Ferrari was quick on the straights but slow through the corners, making his job of retaking third place easier.<\/p>\n

Leclerc was also overheating his tyres in those early laps, forcing him to back off, which briefly made Russell a threat.<\/p>\n

Judging downforce levels at Monza is a subtle art because the effect of the slipstream is so powerful. It\u2019s easy to get greedy and end up losing performance in the corners \u2013 certainly both Ferrari drivers were flirting with disaster quite often as they tried to carry high speeds through the Lesmos.<\/p>\n

McLaren\u2019s decision to extend both its drivers\u2019 first stints so as to take soft tyres for the final laps failed to work on all levels, giving both drivers too much work to do and leaving Piastri potentially vulnerable to Leclerc. The soft tyres did not yield the performance uplift expected, flattering the gap between third and fourth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m sure we didn’t have the pace of the McLarens and the Red Bulls,\u201d said Hamilton.<\/p>\n

\"Lewis <\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari<\/p>\n

Photo by: Zak Mauger \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I definitely think Charles and I, if we were together, we could have had a strong race in perhaps keeping up with, maybe trying to keep up more with the guys further ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really don’t know. I just think they were just too fast, the guys further ahead, but I definitely think we would have been fifth, fourth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a really good start \u2013 I had to lift just after because it was such a good start \u2013 and then I got kind of squeezed in between two cars. But other than that I positioned the car really nicely and I think made my way forwards, and I think I could have got fifth today.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I was 1.5 seconds behind George, we should have tried to undercut him. But we missed that opportunity, then I was miles behind after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Team boss Fred Vasseur put a more positive gloss on the weekend, pointing out the narrowness of the gap between Ferrari and McLaren compared with other races earlier in the season \u2013 but it was still \u201cnot enough\u201d to \u201cbring a podium to the tifosi\u201d.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

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