Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton reflects on a positive weekend for the F1 Canadian GP. Following a strong qualifying performance, the 7 time champion suffered damage early on Sunday compromising his Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton enjoyed a strong performance on Saturday ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix for Ferrari. Despite a positive starting position of P5, damage early on hampered the 7 time champions pace. Having collided with a groundhog on lap 12, Hamilton was informed he had lost 20 points of downforce.
Despite an estimated half-a-second per lap pace loss, Hamilton managed to secure a P6 finish behind teammate Leclerc. Speaking after the Grand Prix, Hamilton had a slightly more positive outlook, albeit reiterating the team still have work to do.
“I finished 6th, so it would have been 7th if it wasn’t for a crash up ahead, which I was grateful for,” Hamilton joked as he reflected on the Canadian GP in the print media pen. “The positives are Montreal never fails to amaze. I think the crowd was incredible this weekend, so a big thank you.
“It was also great to see. I’ve been coming here for 18 years and the support that I’ve had has been amazing. To see the people that were with me follow through and come out in red this weekend has been really cool.”
When asked about the damage causing incident, Hamilton explained how the pace loss coupled with strategy cost him. While he admitted the final result was positive, he believed in the right circumstance, a P4 finish would have been possible.
Despite a disappointing turn of events, Hamilton was pleased with his early pace during the Canadian GP.
“Someone said it was a groundhog.” He recalled. “I destroyed the front right of the car. I was just slow. I was just lacking a lot of performance. It was over half a second so I was just going backwards.
“My qualifying was better. I was holding on up until the damage. I was kind of holding on to Piastri, I think. With the damage, then I started to drop off from Piastri and then I probably should have stopped around a similar sort of time. For some reason I stayed out and then I lost a tonne of time.
“Came out behind a bunch of people. Then I was stuck behind people. So then I just ended up in no man’s land.
“But to still come away with this in sixth is a positive. I think if everything was perfect, if we had done everything right and we didn’t have any problems, maybe we would have a fourth.”
When asked about his marked improvement over recent Grands Prix, Hamilton explained it was mostly his growing understanding of the car. While the overall performance was improved, the Ferrari man claimed the circuit highlighted a key weakness of the SF-25.
Reflecting on the weekend, he explained he was plagued with understeer, making driving especially difficult around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. With the SF-25 lacking the pace to compete at the front, he admitted he was disappointed overall. Despite this, the Ferrari man remained optimistic about the remainder of the 2025 season.
“I think mostly just me adapting,” he replied. “But I think this track really highlighted the weaknesses of the car. I’ve never had a car understeer so much at a low speed. It just doesn’t want to turn to turn 2 and turn 10. Definitely not my most favourite weekend, but I hope the next one will be better.
“Obviously I want to win. When you’re not competing at the front, you’re not fighting for podiums.
“I’m definitely a little bit gutted with that. I was hoping today I’d have to fight for a podium. But we don’t have the performance currently.
“Hopefully with an upgrade, maybe at some stage, we’ll be a bit sharper.”
