Nico Rosberg confirms Lewis Hamilton’s complaint about Ferrari car

Nico Rosberg has backed Lewis Hamilton claim about Ferrari’s F1 car following a challenging Friday practice at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton branded his Ferrari SF25 as “not driveable” over team radio after ending up 11th in the timesheet at the end of second practice at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Friday.

Hamilton finished FP2 with a time that was nearly eight tenths slower than the pacesetting McLaren of Oscar Piastri. Reflecting on Friday practice, the 40-year-old Briton described it as “not a good day”.

“Not fun. It’s a beautiful place. The weather has been amazing but no. Not a good day,” Hamilton added.

“I wouldn’t say I am motivating the team at the moment. Just keep your head down, keep working away. You can’t give up. You keep going, keep pushing. Keep trying to focus on solving the issues which we will try to do.

“You arrive on a Friday and you’re hoping for a good day, and it doesn’t go well but then you have a weekend in Monaco where all of a sudden the car feels great. I thought the car was going to be good today but it wasn’t too bad in P1. P2 was quite a lot worse.

“Naturally that’s frustrating for everyone. We had some problem which meant we were losing some downforce, so hopefully with that fix for tomorrow we’ll be in a better place.”

Rosberg validates Hamilton’s complaint

Hamilton’s assessment of his Ferrari was supported by former Mercedes F1 title rival Rosberg, who watched the behaviour of the car from trackside on Friday.

"I was out there trackside watching Lewis and Charles, and I can confirm that the Ferrari is not driveable,” Rosberg told Sky Sports F1.

“It had more understeer than the others, and more snap oversteer. There was a bit more of everything going on.

"But they’re still in the hunt because, apparently, even with the balance problems the car is still relatively fast, especially on the long runs.”

Hamilton fared little better in final practice on Saturday as he ended up ninth-quickest, 1.1 seconds behind Piastri.

Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc was third-quickest and seven tenths adrift of the lead McLaren.