Lewis Hamilton admits Ferrari ‘worst it’s ever been’ as new radio surfaces
New radio messages reveal Lewis Hamilton admitted his Ferrari was the "worst it's ever been" in Barcelona.
Lewis Hamilton described his Ferrari as “the worst it’s ever been” in new radio messages that have surfaced from the F1 Spanish Grand Prix.
The seven-time world champion made the admission after finishing sixth in a difficult race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Sunday.
Having enjoyed his best qualifying result for Ferrari and ran as high as fourth after making a good start, Hamilton had to let teammate Charles Leclerc through after just nine laps as he struggled for pace.
Hamilton’s pace dropped off at an alarmingly rate following a late Safety Car and he was overtaken by Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg on his way to finishing seventh on the road, before being promoted to P6 as a result of Max Verstappen’s post-race penalty.
New radio exchanges between Hamilton and his race engineer Riccardo Adami have since come to light.
Under the Safety Car, Hamilton was heard informing Adami: “The front of the car feels so light all of a sudden. There’s something wrong with that last front wing [change] I think.”
After the restart, Hamilton then radios in to highlight further concerns, reporting: “I don’t know what’s wrong with this car, mate.”
During his cool-down lap back to the pits, Hamilton, who was seen shaking his head in parc ferme, complained: “Yeah unbelievable guys.
“There’s something wrong with this car, mate. It’s the worst it’s ever been.”
Ferrari tight-lipped on Hamilton’s car problem
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur revealed to media including Crash.net that Hamilton suffered a problem on his car before the Safety Car, though he refused to say what the issue was.
"You are experienced enough to draw a conclusion after the first words of the driver," Vasseur said.
"If you want to create a polemic, you can. But it's not the case. I think he did 70 per cent of the race in front of Russell. I'm not sure that Russell said that the race was a disaster.
"But then we had an issue on the car the last stint, before the Safety Car. The result is not good, but he did 45 laps in front of Russell.”
Hamilton was in an extremely downbeat mood after the Spanish Grand Prix, which he described as being “the worst race I’ve experienced”.
Asked if there are any positives he can take from the weekend, Hamilton bluntly replied: “Zero.”
The result leaves Hamilton sixth in the drivers’ championship on 71 points, 23 points behind Leclerc who claimed his third podium of the season with a hard-earned drive to P3 in Barcelona.
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