Despondent Lewis Hamilton admits Ferrari have ‘mountain to climb’

Lewis Hamilton says Ferrari have a “mountain to climb” after a poor sprint qualifying at the United States Grand Prix.

Ferrari struggled for pace in qualifying for the sprint race in Austin, with Hamilton and teammate Charles Leclerc only just squeaking through to SQ3, where they could only qualify eighth and 10th respectively.

Hamilton was beaten by a Sauber, Aston Martin and a Williams as he ended up eight tenths adrift of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who beat McLaren’s title rivals Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to pole position.

“That was definitely not the pace we were expecting,” a despondent Hamilton admitted after the session.

“It was looking good in practice. Q1 was looking pretty decent as well and then it just started to fall away from us.

“The car is very, very tough to drive. It just fell away from us. Eight tenths - that’s a mountain to climb.”

Ferrari 'shocked' by lack of pace

Leclerc was equally downbeat and could not pinpoint where Ferrari are losing so much time compared to their rivals.

“[We are losing time] everywhere,” last year’s United States Grand Prix race winner said. “Honestly, my lap was clean in SQ3, I don’t regret much what I have done in my lap.

"Maybe a little bit more mileage this morning on the medium you can fine tune the car a little bit better. There might be a tenth, a tenth and a half, in that but it’s not enough.

"We are so far behind now. Unfortunately for now it just seems like this is the potential of our car. Today was a very poor day.”

Jenson Button is concerned that Ferrari don’t appear to have an answer for their lack of performance.

“I think the biggest issue is they are just shocked by it,” the 2009 world champion told Sky Sports F1.

“You can see with both drivers, it’s not like they knew this was coming. In practice they were quick and it’s fallen away from them.

“It’s trying to understand why the pace isn’t there. They don’t know where they’ve lost that pace and that’s the most frustrating thing from a driver’s point of view, and also from the team’s point of view.”

Fellow Sky Sports F1 pundit Danica Patrick said: “They both seem defeated, you can tell in both of their interviews, it’s total frustration. It’s almost like ‘let’s just get this year over with’.

“Lewis especially, when you have a change like he had, from Mercedes to a team you think you are going to go better at… A lot of times that change can spark something and it’s just been such a disappointment.

“I’m sure they are going to really welcome the off-season this year. They are going to have to go back to the drawing board and try something completely new.”