Ferrari ‘s first day of practice ahead of the F1 Imola GP turned out be a rather tough experience for both drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
Braking troubles in paradise?
The seven times World Champion’s Friday had started off in a positive way with a top 5 finish and an improved car feeling compared to the last time on track in Miami. Unfortunately, his troubles, and especially his braking issues, worsened over the span of FP2.
Hamilton discussed his sudden lack of car feeling after the end of Practice, highlighting the almost non-existent consistency in his SF-25 experience up to now.
“It’s not the transition, it’s the performance. It’s a lottery, we’ll roll the dice and you put one [pad] on and it works and put another on and it doesn’t. I hope tomorrow we figure something out, we’re working on it for sure.”
Even more unexpected than the last time out
It’s even more tough for the former Mercedes driver as he truly believed, after the first session of track of the weekend, that he could actually aspire to a rather positive finish, maybe even his first full race podium with the Italian Scuderia.
“I was really happy with the car in FP1, it felt like we’d made a step forward and was feeling really positive. I literally changed two of the tiniest things that shouldn’t have had barely any effect at all.
“The smallest change we’ve probably done this year and we had some brake issues that then made a massive difference so that was then a fight with that. That’s been quite a big issue all year actually.”
Leclerc’s troubles on and… off track
On the other side of the garage, the issues had begun already on Thursday for Leclerc. In fact, the Monegasque driver’s struggles had begun yesterday already as he had suffered from an illness which prevented him from taking part in his Thursday media duties.
His tough times persuaded in FP1, during which he had helmet troubles, and finally, brake issues during the final session of the day. While he was able to make the most of his challenger and ended the day in P6, he was still over half a second behind the McLarens at the top of the standings.
The long term Ferrari driver was more concerned at the end of the day about the lack of speed in his SF-25 compared to his new teammate, as he commented:
“Our weak point at the moment is the Qualifying pace and we still need to work on that. To go and take pole, honestly I don’t think we’ve got it in the car for now but the race pace was strong so that’s positive.”
Qualifying pace is even more of a problem right here for Ferrari at home for the Imola GP, because of the track specifications and narrowness, which make overtaking even more challenging than usual.
“But [it’s] also a track where overtaking is very difficult, so we’ve got to focus on our qualifying pace, that’s where we are putting all our effort into,” Leclerc concluded, focused on his goal for tomorrow: to put his car in the top spots for Sunday.
