Staff principal Frederic Vasseur injected some perspective into Hamilton’s scenario.
“For certain if you find yourself seven-times world champion, your team-mate is in pole place and you might be out in Q2, it is a powerful scenario,” Vasseur stated.
On the race consequence, Vasseur identified that Ferrari had gambled on a one-stop technique beginning on the arduous tyre on a monitor the place overtaking is notoriously troublesome, and it “did not work”.
“I can perceive the frustration from Lewis,” he stated, “however that is regular, and he’ll come again.”
Vasseur, who was instrumental in persuading Hamilton to go away Mercedes to hitch Ferrari for this season, identified that the ends in Hungary made his driver’s weekend look worse than it was.
Sure, Hamilton had been 0.247 seconds slower than Leclerc when he was knocked out of qualifying after the second session. However Leclerc himself had discovered it arduous to progress, and Hamilton had been simply 0.155secs adrift of his team-mate within the first session.
The previous two races have seen a stall within the constructive momentum Hamilton had been constructing after a troublesome begin to his Ferrari profession.
Since Miami in early Could, there was little to decide on between the 2 drivers in qualifying, and Hamilton out-qualified Leclerc in three of the 4 races earlier than Belgium, per week earlier than Hungary.
Two errors of various sorts within the qualifying periods for the dash and grand prix at Spa made Hamilton look uncompetitive when he was something however.
Hamilton was a match for Leclerc on tempo in Belgium, however an off adopted by a spin brought on by a mix of things referring to a brand new braking materials noticed him out within the first session in dash qualifying. And the identical factor occurred when he misjudged the exit of the 180mph+ swerves at Eau Rouge and went barely outdoors monitor limits in qualifying for the grand prix.
Even with the issues in Belgium and Hungary, and the necessity to adapt to a brand new automotive of very completely different traits at the beginning of the season, Hamilton’s common qualifying deficit to Leclerc is 0.146 seconds this 12 months.
That is not what Hamilton would count on of himself, nevertheless it needs to be considered within the context that Ferrari – and lots of others in F1 – regard Leclerc because the quickest driver over a single lap on this planet.
Hamilton’s critics level to his struggles in opposition to George Russell in his remaining season at Mercedes final 12 months.
The 40-year-old has discovered the ground-effect automobiles launched into F1 in 2022 don’t match his late-braking model in addition to the earlier era of automobiles. And it does stay a thriller that he has not been capable of adapt in addition to would have been anticipated, or apparently in addition to different drivers.
However Vasseur rejected any concept that he is perhaps apprehensive about Hamilton’s scenario.
“He is demanding,” Vasseur stated, “however I feel it is also why he is seven-times world champion, that he is demanding with the crew, with the automotive, with the engineers, with the mechanics, with myself additionally. However to begin with he is very demanding with himself.”
