Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, Hockenheimring, 2018

Hamilton: Ferrari “have got a lot more power all of a sudden”

2018 German Grand Prix

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Ferrari’s performance on the straights at Hockenheim has caught Lewis Hamilton’s eye. The Mercedes driver believes their rivals have made a significant step forward.

Hamilton ended Friday practice two-tenths of a second quicker than Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari but he expects them to be more competitive tomorrow.

“Every Friday they sandbag so it doesn’t mean much,” he said. “They are quick today and I think tomorrow will be very much similar unless all of a sudden they pull out even more time.”

He believes Ferrari have made gains with their straight-line speed.

“Today they were very quick on the straights,” said Hamilton. “Which I find really interesting because they’ve not had a new engine but all of a sudden they’ve got a lot more power. So it’ll be interesting to see if they still have that tomorrow.”

Ferrari introduced a new MGU-K on all six Ferrari-powered cars today. Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen also have new energy stores this weekend.

Speculation surrounds the workings of Ferrari’s power unit which is believed to use its MGU-H in a unique way to recover energy more quickly than its rivals’. The FIA investigated the system following the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and concluded the system is legal.

Hamilton said Mercedes will not be distracted by rumours about its rivals’ cars. “Other people are doing interesting things,” he said. “For us we can’t get distracted by what other people are doing.

“All we can do it try to do the best job we can and that’s what we’re focused on. We’re not focused on all the other people, whatever they’re doing.

“We’re literally just trying to make sure we understand our tyres, tyre temperatures, all these different things. Try to be as perfect as we can on the starts. Hopefully that’ll be enough.”

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40 comments on “Hamilton: Ferrari “have got a lot more power all of a sudden””

  1. Gemma St. Ivans
    20th July 2018, 19:59

    Poor Lewis can’t handle it when he has to actually work to be quick instead of just pushing buttons on the steering wheel .

    1. I’m honestly not sure how you glean that from the above. He’s observing that they’re quicker on the straights than they were, giving them credit for the work they’re doing and hoping he can beat them anyway without being distracted by what they’re doing.
      Seems pretty mature and sensible (especially for Lewis) to me. Where’s the ‘can’t handle’ bit?

    2. You have to think before write. Hamilton comes from an era of F1 with much less buttons than today. An era which Vettel doesn’t know.

      1. Dio I think that goes for you too! Think before you write I mean!..
        Hamiltons career started in 2007 and Vettel started his F1 career in 2007, namely in the US Grand Prix after Kubicas crash in Canada.. So both guys have been in the same era since then, buttons or not..

        1. Thanks for correcting me. I didnt even remembered when Vettel started. Guess I was way focused only on my team back then. Either way his comment was wrong. Even though I don’t like Hamilton’s whining. It has gone a lot worse…

      2. They debuted around the same time

      3. I think dio might have been going for sarcasm with that one. Vettel first drove in a GP weekend in 2006, Hamilton in 2007.

        1. Unfortunately, I’m not sure it’s sarcasm.

          1. Why unfortunately? I made a mistake. Either way his comment about hamilton hitung buttons was wrong. Hamilton got his first championship earlier at least…

          2. Vettel, like Schumacher, Alonso, Ricciardo, Verstappen and the other F1 greats I’ve had the pleasure of watching all had to prove themselves in slower equipment before winning races and championships. Schumacher at Jordan, Alonso at Minardi, Ricciardo at HRT, Verstappen at Toro Rosso…
            Hamilton has always been given a car capable of winning races by his team, him winning earlier is not impressive, he had a race winning car earlier…duh…

      4. Michael Haley
        21st July 2018, 20:58

        <blockquoteVetel has more knowledge of F1 than Hamilton and is an alround better driver. They started their careers about the same time. Hamilton refuses to accept resposibility for his own mistakees.

    3. So, get your ass in his seat and do better.

      1. Exactly. That’s why Yuji Ide is the best driver of all time.
        Actually, I think I could do better than him, having only driven in sims. Yeah, it’s possible. So no, he sucks.

    4. Neil (@neilosjames)
      20th July 2018, 21:41

      Yawn.

    5. Poor Lewis..I think that Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) is his real problem.
      Irrational thoughts, Ferrari images, or ideas that won’t go away, are unwanted and causing his extreme distress.
      I think that he dreams Seb,Kimi…

      1. @Bebana Did you get dropped on the head a lot as a baby? Your really just write gibberish all the time.

    6. YellowSubmarine
      21st July 2018, 9:33

      As you sit here calling him names, Hamilton is making £1,900,000 per race.

      1. My submarine,
        You do not know, of course, who am I…..

  2. Don’t worry, the FIA (Ferrari Investigative Authority) will be on it.

  3. Yes, seems like they do. Not sure about the ‘all of a sudden’ part though. Because Nico Rosberg stated almost 2 weeks ago (his comments were included on the latest f1fanatics round-up) that Ferrari seems to have found a way to recharge their battery better than any other engine manufacturer on the grid today.
    Well anyway I am happy to see that it seems like the Merc dominance regarding the PU is broken. Let’s hope Renault and Honda up their game and we’ll hopefully see no specific engine as superior as Merc in the past coming 2020/21.

    1. Source: dude, trust me (no, actually I have no idea): Using bigger turbo than what is needed for a 1.6 V6 engine, just to have as much MGU-H regen as you can and be able to deploy as close as possible to 4MJ every lap in the race… as well as giving up MGU-H regen and reduce backpressure for a boost in ICE performance in Q mode… are just basic tricks every manufacturer was on top by the end of 2014. Just the tip of an iceberg of engineering tricks.
      I really don’t think Rosberg, from outside of F1 after retiring, would be able to explain how Ferrari are working on their engine… I mean, if Rosberg knows, Merc would know better and do that on their own engine.

      1. *for a 1.6 V6 engine with fuel flow limitation

      2. @dusty Point taken! You might be right.. I’m no engineer (and always happy to learn), so I’m relying on comments of people who make (made) their living with mechanical engineering/driving these machines.
        Anyhow, whatever it is Ferrari discovered to give them the edge above Mercedes now, I believe it won’t be a secret for long as the engineers/mechanics at Mercedes/Renault/Honda involved are at a similiar level of knowledge and will figure out what approach Ferrari found. Which was my point after all. I don’t want to see spec PU’s but having all manufacturers on a similar level while continuing to develop small gains in power and compete in that margin from race to race is awesome.

        1. @nasiboring I see what you are saying, I guess my my comment is more directed to “Rosberg explaining the world what Ferrari is doing” than to the point you were making.

          To be honest, Lewis and Mercedes keep saying so often “Ferrari have more power, Ferrari have more downforce, Ferrari is sandbagging, Ferrari is the car to beat” that I don’t really give them much credit. It might be the case, that a few times their deep analysis of GPS data showed Ferrari found something on the engine and it is not just aero settings. But most of the time, Mercedes just seem to talk themselves down to make their win look more heroic on Sunday.

        2. Most likely true but to introduce those new components other teams will incur penalties to introduce them early.

      3. Rosberg is smart and literally drove really similar cars less then 2 years ago he probably has as good of a guess as most people

  4. Only time will tell, both Ferraris are now on their 2 ES and 2 CE and last year Vettel gave Hamilton free points in Malaysia and in Japan. Mercedes have always prioritized reliability over performance while Ferrari looks like the opposite.

    1. Really? I guess that’s why we’ve seen so many Ferrari engine failures this year compared to Mercedes… Oh wait…

    2. Uhhh, didnt Merc just have a double mechanical DNF?

      1. None of which were traced back to their PU

  5. Yep, Ferrari may have finally caught Merc but doubt they have surpassed them. With Wolff at the helm, Ferrari definitely benefit as their strategy skills are weak.
    No wonder Hamilton all of a sudden wanted a Ferrari seat. He could be in for a long 2 years but still too early to tell.

    1. It’s pretty obvious that engine wise Ferrari caught Mercedes last year and passed them this year, just look at the relative performance of the customer teams.

      1. last year?? same engine? imposible.. last year they had a good chassis and were really good taking care of the tires at the begining of the season.. but in terms of engine mercedes was still far ahead… this year things look good.. it actually look like ferrari closed the gap to almost impossible to distinguish.. mostly down to who take better care of the tire

      2. Right… but I’m pretty sure that Ferrari customer teams perform better because of the rest of the car too, not only the engine. Sauber suddenly got better because of the desire to involve Alfa Romeo in F1 again, thanks to year-spec engine (which wasn’t the case last year) and, of course, to Leclerc. They seem to have made a big step forward only in the hands of Leclerc.

    2. If Hamilton did want a Ferrari seat then he’s missed his opportunity, or at least his opportunity to get one as the Number One driver. In two year’s time Ferrari will want the likes of Verstappen or Ricciardo, not Hamilton.

      1. Italiani did not want him, brother Stephen.
        That is the power of Ferrari. Italian brain…

      2. @drycrust Ferrari does seem to go for washed out champions though. They brought Kimi back from the dustbin and they only hired Vettel after he had his clock cleaned by Ricciardo.

        So it’s not that far off to assume that after Hamilton starts to lose it, he can go to Ferrari too. Maybe that’s his master plan all along.

        1. I don’t think Ferrari would pay Hamilton 40 million, or anywheres near that.
          There’s plenty of talent for a lot less money.

  6. Melchior (@)
    21st July 2018, 9:37

    “Hamilton said Mercedes will not be distracted by rumours about its rivals’ cars.”
    But obviously Hamilton is distracted.

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