Lewis Hamilton declared himself satisfied with his first qualifying session as a Ferrari driver, despite being out-qualified by his team mate.
The Ferrari drivers will share the fourth row of the grid for the first round of the new season. Leclerc out-qualified Hamilton by 0.218 seconds, which is half the gap between them yesterday.Ferrari appeared to be in better shape yesterday, when Leclerc set the fastest time in practice. They ended qualifying as the sixth-fastest team behind McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes, Racing Bulls and Williams.
“We’re not where we want to be,” Hamilton told Viaplay, “so that’s definitely disappointing for us. I’m sure people will be disappointed in the team that we’re not further up [the grid].”
However he was satisfied with his first performance for the team in qualifying. “I just see it as a new experience each time,” he said. “For me to be that close to Charles in my first qualifying session in the red car when he knows it so well, I’m pretty comfortable with that.
“I just know I’ve got more work to do. Tomorrow will be my first time in the wet [in this car] as well.”
Hamilton said working at Ferrari is “night and day different” compared to his previous team, Mercedes.
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“It’s just everything: The way we work in the engineers’ office, the way we go through strategies, just the terminology that’s used for everything.
“The way they go through data is different. All the tools are just different, it’s like you’re looking at another language.
“I’ve been doing it for so long and I know these things but it’s telling me something different on there. So learning all these new tools and how to communicate with the team is taking its time, particularly when you’re on-track working with your engineer. But it’s been amazing.”
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kpcart
15th March 2025, 8:09
I was hoping for 3rd and 4th for Ferrari. I wouldnt expect any less of Hamilton, the best driver of the last 20 years to be so close to Leclerc in his first qualifying together.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
15th March 2025, 8:27
one of the commentators talked about the rear wing being a bit much on the Ferrari, which might work in Ferrari’s favor tomorrow.
With Mercedes, he never seemed to get a good answer as to his deficit concerning corner exit, or why Russell could always almost beat him down the straight, even w/ DRS disadvantage.
Hopefully, this is not a problem anymore for Lewis, and he can start overtaking people again. This was really his biggest issue last few years, straightline performance, off the corner. If this has ended, his ability to hold on to his tires will ring far harder.
Just gotta find the good rhythm of the car, the circuit, and get some good strategy calls.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
15th March 2025, 9:56
I’m not too disappointed/surprised at Lewis’s first outing in the Ferrari, but he needs to stay upbeat and improve every race or I believe he will just give up and say goodbye to F1 very soon.
Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
15th March 2025, 10:00
I’m not sure it’s 2 tenths, it’s more of a failure of Leclerc to set a better time in his second run. Had he pulled it off it would be back to 4 tenths I feel.
SteveP
15th March 2025, 10:14
+/- portions of a gnats whatnot it’s 2 tenths in both Q1, Q3 and down to the aforementioned gnats’ in Q2
Q1: 0.184, Q2: 0.092, Q3: 0.218
I’d put that down as a solid, “who knows, maybe Lewis could have done better in Q3?”
I’m curious about both Ferraris being where they are, and comments about the amount of wing they are running – setup more for wet than for dry?
Asanator (@asanator)
15th March 2025, 19:16
Leclerc ran used tyres for his final run.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
15th March 2025, 10:04
Wet settings?
David BR (@david-br)
15th March 2025, 13:58
@bullfrog For both Ferraris? My thought too.
MichaelN
15th March 2025, 16:09
Hamilton and Leclerc both said the track conditions changed while Ferrari didn’t do anything to counter it, so both had tyre overheating issues in Q3.
It’s not really likely they were close in Q1 and Q2 and then suddenly drop off in Q3 because of some fundamentally different set-up choices.
Anon A. Mouse
15th March 2025, 17:19
This is immediately apparent in the radio communications between Hamilton and his new Engineer. There’s pieces of terminology and vernacular carried over from the Mercedes days (no pressure from behind, switch change instructions, wing adjustments) but there’s differences and disconnects between what Hamilton is used to giving and what Ferrari Engineers are used to providing.
For example at the conclusion of a hot lap Hamilton likes to know the gap to P1, then the advantage/deficit in each sector, and then finally specific corners to improve (T6 and T11). The feedback from the Engineer hasn’t been consistent this weekend – he may get the gap to P1, he may get the gap to Leclerc, he may get the gap to some other front runner. Or he’ll ask for the sector deficits and he may or may not get a response. In the Mercedes days he would get a time deficit for specific corners; Ferrari appears to give that deficit in terms of KPH difference.
Given that these are public examples, it’s surely more of a task for engineering briefings and such. It’ll take several races for the communication idiosyncrasies to be ironed out for Hamilton and indeed every driver moving to new teams.