Speaking on Thursday ahead of this weekend’s F1 Belgian GP, Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc discuss Ferrari’s latest upgrades.
“We didn’t test”
Having broken cover last week, Formula 1 has been hotly discussing Ferrari’s upcoming suspension upgrade. With the team set to introduce a new rear suspension set-up for this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, Hamilton and Leclerc discussed the changes.
Speaking in the press conference on Thursday at the F1 Belgian GP, Lewis Hamilton played down the hype around the upgrade. The seven time champion claimed that simulator runs showed no difference in performance. The Ferrari man was also quick to point out the team’s Mugello run was not a test session.
“We didn’t test,” Hamilton replied when asked about last week’s Mugello session. “It was a photo shoot day, basically. So did like 10 laps or whatever—14 laps of filming. It was not a test.
“[The car felt] the same as before. So the same as it did the weeks before. Firstly, we’ll get to test the suspension tomorrow, and I’m sure there’s going to be learnings from it. We’ll figure out how to fine-tune it and try to extract performance from it.
“On the simulator, there’s no difference. But I’m sure across different circuits, perhaps there’ll be benefits.”
Continuing to discuss the team’s filming day, Hamilton noted the positive of introducing the upgrade. While the Briton claims there were no noticeable performance gains, the new package presents progress for the Maranello based marque.
“For me, the positive thing is arriving at the filming day where you see that new bits are coming. You see that we are getting development. Because in general, we had an upgraded floor in Bahrain. Then it was quite some time before we got another upgrade—I think it was Austria. And pace-wise it wasn’t necessarily what I thought we would have.
“If you look at some of the other teams, they bring small pieces every single weekend—like Red Bull often do or Mercedes do, for example. Whereas these are more like big chunks along the way. So I was just really happy to see that there clearly is a big push back at the factory. There are a lot of changes, and then to see the results of those changes takes time. So I was just really grateful to see that we got new parts. We’ll try and put them to use this weekend.”
“I’m not going to comment…”
Teammate Charles Leclerc shared a similar sentiment in his print media session, once again suggesting there was very little performance gain, contrary to rumours of the upgrade.
Leclerc was asked in detail about the suspension performance of the SF-25. The Ferrari man remained tight-lipped on the topic, however.
“We did not and I’m not going to comment on the specific behaviours of this suspension,” Leclerc replied when asked about the upgrades characteristics. “Obviously, these are things that remain for us and it would be quite stupid for us to comment globally on what does what. But we’ll find out tomorrow on track.”
Leclerc was then pushed on the car’s set-up and how it may be affected by the upgrade. The Monegasque driver again remained steadfast that the upgrade would have no effect on the set-up approach.
“I don’t think so,” he replied when asked if the upgrades would improve his confidence in the SF-25. “I think I can find the confidence if I set up the car in a different way. So, if I need confidence, I’ll go for that.
“But for now, I prefer to go for performance rather than confidence. It doesn’t always pay off and I think we’ve seen it last race weekend in Silverstone where obviously I had my struggles which were pretty big on the wet and I know that this is the risk of running such an extreme set-up. I don’t think this will improve with that because we still need to set up the car in a relatively similar position in order to extract the maximum out of it.”
Both drivers were also asked on the impact of this weekend’s sprint format on dialling in the new components. The two drivers shared differing opinions on the topic, with Leclerc seeming confident in the team’s strategy. Hamilton on the other hand explained the difficulty posed by the limited free practice time.
When asked directly, Hamilton explained he did not expect to have the new upgraded components fully dialled in this weekend. Instead, he highlighted the importance of maximising the available track time.
“We don’t have a lot of time,” Hamilton explained. “So you need to double up. You need to make sure you get as much information from both cars. You need to do the whole session. If it’s wet, then that really helps your learning. But in terms of fine-tuning the car, it’s highly unlikely we’re going to fully optimise it during this weekend. It’ll probably be something we’re optimising over the next few weekends.”
Conversely, Leclerc remained optimistic, noting this weekend had been the target to introduce the upgrade.
“I mean, it’s a sprint weekend,” Leclerc replied. “So obviously we only have FP1, but these are things that, I mean, I’m relatively confident I shouldn’t cause too much problems. It was in development and in the programme to put it here since a long time. So I’m happy that we are putting it as soon as possible, which I hope will give us a step forward, and I don’t anticipate any struggles to adapt to it.”
