Ferrari’s “unique bits” will help them in Canada – Hamilton

2017 Canadian Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton believes the unique aspects of Ferrari’s car will make it particularly well-suited to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve this weekend.

Speaking in the pre-race press conference Hamilton endorsed Mercedes executive director Toto Wolff’s view that their championship-leading rivals are now the favourites.

“I think Toto mentioned that he thinks Ferrari, and we obviously have seen Ferrari are the quickest at the moment so they are favourites,” said Hamilton. “But we are working hard to rectify the issues we had at the past race. I hope that we can attack this weekend.”

“They’ve got some unique bits on the car, I think, which will work well this weekend. But that doesn’t mean we can’t take the fight to them.”

Hamilton has been plagued by problems with getting the ultra-soft tyre compound to work two weeks ago and the same rubber will be used this weekend. Asked if he’d been able to make any progress with them he replied: “Not much at all.”

“We’ve definitely done some analysis but we’ll find whether or not there’s new things we can improve on this weekend.”

Hamilton said getting the tyres into the correct operating window had been been hit-and-miss for him so far.

“You just drive the same – you push or you drive slow depending on the temperature of the circuit. When you come to do your lap sometimes they’re ready or they’re not,” he said.

“It’s kind of a numb feeling. Sometimes the tyres feel exactly the same when you leave the garage and sometimes they grip up. It’s the same for every tyre.”

2017 Canadian Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    37 comments on “Ferrari’s “unique bits” will help them in Canada – Hamilton”

    1. I’m just waiting for the next press release by Ferrari.

      Mercedes’s ”big bit” will help them in Canada-Vettel

      1. Honestly isnt everyone expecting Hamilton to do well in Canada. Mercedes is downplaying.

    2. Hamilton is obviously taking “insurance” in case something goes wrong Sochi style this Sunday. Remember that some of us predicted Hamilton dominance there till first the Ferraris and then Hamilton’s own teammate came along to spoil the party.

    3. Hamilton: “They’ve got some unique bits on the car, I think, which will work well this weekend. But that doesn’t mean we can’t take the fight to them.”

      and this is from motorpsort.com:

      Hamilton: “I hope we can attack this weekend. We have some unique bits on the cars that could work well this weekend.”

      so which is it? :-)

      1. @vjanik He definitely said “they’ve” not “we’ve” and “will” not “could”.

        Also if he’d said “we’ve” then the next part of the quote, “but that doesn’t mean we can’t take the fight to them”, wouldn’t make sense.

        1. Let’s get it from the Horse’s Mouth via their (the horse’s owner’s) own website (formula1.com).

          Lewis HAMILTON: “I think Toto mentioned that he thinks Ferrari… We’ve obviously seen that Ferrari are quickest at the moment, so they’re the favourites, but we’ve worked very hard to rectify the issues we had in the last race, and after the weekend… Attack this weekend. We’ve got some unique bits on the car I think which will work well this weekend, but it doesn’t mean we can’t take the fight to them.”

          This might become as interesting as the Comey testimony ;)

          1. But if you check the interview via YouTube you can clearly hear “They’ve got…” (min4:10)
            So the horse’s one foot does not know what the other is doing ;)

            1. @f1-liners Yeah I prefer to listen to what they said rather than rely on someone else’s transcript!

      2. Maybe both? It’s possible that he’s contradicting himself too. Or they both have “unique bits”. Though it seems what Ferrari have is what Mercedes have had for a while now with that low downforce rear wing, so I’m not sure that’s a unique bit for Ferrari for example.

        1. It’s possible that he’s contradicting himself too

          Hamilton does that quite often. Most of his public comments sound like they are orchestrated by his PR staff but after he few hours he probably forgets what they told him to say and manages to drop a clanger.

          1. Those aren’t mutually exclusive statements. Considering that they are both driving 1 of only 2 unique cars in the world designed and developed by independent groups that have been working since last fall to each and every little bit and change various parts at every track, i would think they both have “unique bits” on their cars. While he may think that Ferrari’s “unique bits” will work well for this track, he could at the same time hope that his own will work well too but won’t really know until they start running.

      3. “Unique bits” – all the cars have unique bits. Every single one of them is slightly different to others, even down to the number on the side/front.

    4. Conflicting reports on what Hamilton actually said?
      Other sites reporting Hamilton said “We (Mercedes) have some unique bits on the cars that could work well this weekend” (not Ferrari?)

    5. and we obviously have seen Ferrari are the quickest at the moment so they are favourites

      Thankfully we haven’t, otherwise it’d have been a really boring season so far, but it’s not been the case.

      1. “At the moment” does not mean “over the whole season”

      2. Well, Hamilton pretty much lucked into a win in Spain because Ferrari got the strategy wrong. Doesn’t mean the Ferrari car isn’t the quickest.

        1. Oh please. You can interpret all the results like that. You can even claim that based on Bottas performance in Monaco and how Hamilton’s fared so far against him that normally he should have won Monaco. But it’s all silly really.

          1. But the Ferrari was quicker on pure pace. They gave away 7 seconds under the VSC, without which it would have been a victory for them. This is COMPLETELY different to the scenario you dreamt up.

            1. @mashiat Bear in mind that Ferrari built up that lead running the softs for 2 stints, while Mercedes had run Soft-Medium.

            2. @david-a They would have been over 10s ahead if Bottas didn’t hold Vettel up, and Vettel only lost 5 seconds to Hamilton in the whole final stint. Ferrari were better in the first stint on the same tyres as well. So I have no doubt Vettel would have won.

            3. Once ahead, and on the quicker tyre, Hamilton controlled the pace, and could have gained more than 5 seconds over the final stint if he wanted.

            4. @mashiat Once ahead, and on the quicker tyre, Hamilton controlled the pace, and could have gained more than 5 seconds over the final stint if he wanted.

        2. From Brawn’s book, he states that it is strategy that wins, and so far this year, it’s been exactly that which has led to lose/win.

    6. -“You are the favorite”
      -“No, you are the favorite!”
      -“No, YOU are the favorite!!”

      1. Duck season! Rabbit sesson! Duck season! The rest is history :-)

    7. When LuLu wins it is solely his skill at work. When he loses it is clearly because his car is inferior.

      Don’t believe me? Just ask him.

      1. Ask his fans.

        There is also, Vettel is not a good driver unless he wins in an inferior car. He won Monza on a TR, then we hear that it is because of the setup that day.

        When Vettel won his championships Webber was never ranked second which would indicate a superior car.

        Now we are getting ‘Driver’ should have won but the strategy let him down, or the tyres, or the pit stop, or the backmarkers etc.

      2. Sounds like a lot of people only read what they want to hear really

    8. Monaco was the first race of the season where either car held any significant advantage over the other. In the first 5 races of the season there was nothing to split Mercedes and Ferrari. Merc is a bit faster in qualifying too.

      1. Ferrari is clearly quicker on the softer tyres.
        Let them lead, they will ride into the distance.

      2. @kingshark

        Agree, So far every race weekend it has been pretty even. Mercs slightly quicker in qualifying and Ferrari slightly better in race trim. Monaco is a off beat circuit anyways and isn’t representative of regular circuits.

        I think it should be a hard fought battle between the two this weekend

    9. mark jackson
      9th June 2017, 3:17

      What’s with Hamilton acting like he knows everything about the Ferrari car. A few weekends ago he was like “Heard you guys have a new start procedure?” Now he’s like “They’ve got new bits that’ll perform well.” When will Lewis learn that his “mind games” his screw up HIS mental state and no one else.

      1. When will Lewis learn that his “mind games” his screw up HIS mental state and no one else.

        No worries on that account. It can get any more “screwed-up” that it already is.

      2. Now he’s like “They’ve got new bits that’ll perform well.”

        Well every other website I’ve seen says Lewis said “I hope we can attack this weekend. We have some unique bits on the cars that could work well this weekend.”. It is only f1fanatic so far where I’ve read the opposite. So I am not sure if everyone else is wrong but Keith is right.

        1. Lets be honest here, LH only has to open is mouth and the trolls start banging away at the keyboard.

    10. For interest this LH quote is direct from Formula1.Com …… I think Toto mentioned that he thinks Ferrari… We’ve obviously seen that Ferrari are quickest at the moment, so they’re the favourites, but we’ve worked very hard to rectify the issues we had in the last race, and after the weekend… Attack this weekend. We’ve got some unique bits on the car I think which will work well this weekend, but it doesn’t mean we can’t take the fight to them.

      And this is from Motorsports.com … “I hope we can attack this weekend. We have some unique bits on the cars that could work well this weekend.”

      Somebody somewhere has got there facts wrong.

      1. deMercer (@)
        9th June 2017, 13:41

        Just listened to the press conference, and I heard Hamilton saying “… they’ve …”.

        While I was listening, I was at the same time reading the official transcription at formula1.com. And boy, what a lot (of mostly small) differences between what I was reading and what I was hearing!

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