Lewis Hamilton said the changes he made to his car after winning the sprint race ruined its balance.
Following his comfortable win from pole position on Saturday, Hamilton could only manage fifth on the grid for the grand prix and slipped to sixth place behind team mate Charles Leclerc in the race. Compounding a disappointing turnaround for Ferrari, both drivers were disqualified after their cars failed technical checks.Immediately after the race Hamilton’s chief concern was the deterioration in his car’s performance compared to the previous day.
“I wasn’t able to get the result that I was hoping for today,” he told the official F1 channel. “I needed a good start which I got and then I was trying to see if I could pounce forwards but I just didn’t have the pace of the cars up ahead.
“Balance-wise, from the sprint race we made these changes and the car was terrible after that so I really struggled with the car from then on.”
Speaking before his disqualification was announced Hamilton said he was concerned Ferrari “were losing ground to McLarens, points-wise, and Mercedes and Verstappen. We’ve just got to keep pushing.”
However his team mate Charles Leclerc was encouraged by his car’s pace, despite picking up front wing damage on the opening lap which he carried to the finish.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
“I’m disappointed because I feel like the potential today was here to maybe fight for the win, actually,” he said. “I really feel like we had a lot of performance in the car.
“Yesterday in the sprint race I felt that way as well, especially towards the end of the sprint race. When I started pushing, I started to gain a lot.”
Leclerc also worked on his set-up between the sprint race and qualifying and said he was “quite optimistic for today.” However he broke his left-hand front wing endplate when he clipped Hamilton at the start.
“We lost 30 points of downforce so that was a big chunk of performance,” he said. “But we did a really good job considering that.
“It’s just a shame about turn one. Lewis couldn’t have done anything better, I don’t know what I could have done better. He was on the outside, I thought he was defending from a car on the outside and then he came back towards the inside. I did not expect that, but he had all the right to do so.
“So we touched. Luckily for us, we both finished the race. But it wasn’t ideal, with the damage, later on.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories - and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
2025 Chinese Grand Prix
- Red Bull reassure Verstappen over ‘when we’ll have a winning car again’ in meeting
- Mercedes explain impact of Antonelli’s floor damage on his Chinese GP performance
- “I gave a lot of lap time away in that first stint”: Verstappen’s full Chinese GP radio
- Stats: Chinese Grand Prix saw most disqualifications in an F1 race for 21 years
- Even the best driver on the grid needs a team mate to push them – Norris
BasCB (@bascb)
23rd March 2025, 13:03
Well, given that they lowered the car too much, Hamilton is certainly right about that! Another experience for him of how Ferrari tend to operate!
Kribana (@krichelle)
23rd March 2025, 13:23
I am guessing they were experimenting for this race, given the sprint weekend, but they pushed it too far. They will need to make a lot of adjustments, especially when they come to tracks with high kerbs and bumps.
harsha vardhan
23rd March 2025, 15:16
I don’t think they made any changes
It’s just Hamilton since 2022
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
23rd March 2025, 19:44
or it was LeClerc’s front wing generating more down force for the correct tire in order to circulate around the track faster. And Ferrari don’t have a good car at the correct height yet.
BasCB (@bascb)
24th March 2025, 8:03
Probably more that the loss of front DF meant the car was somewhat better balanced, I would guess @pcxmac.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
23rd March 2025, 13:48
I really don’t know from where LEC got the impression there was the potential to fight for the win.
Doh
23rd March 2025, 14:10
Well it makes sense for Lewis. If he had kept the sprint set up maybe he could have challenged ahead at least. And leclerc potentially without the damage.
Shame the race just ended after the first stops… I’ve been saying a while they need to do something to make pitstops more favourable to allow for different strategies..
They reduced pit lane speeds a while back which just kills strategy.
Have to to say it again but F1 really isn’t the pinnacle of Motorsport or motor racing. Indycar does a much better job with creating more strategy options during a race. They make adjustments where needed to ensure this. Including sometimes adjusting the length of the race etc
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
23rd March 2025, 15:00
he was probably getting a lot of good down force on the front-left hand side of the car, which would have aided in most of the turns. If both drivers can clip both sides of the wings, and add a little weight, i think they would gain 1/2 a second. Assuming the FIA let them run the whole race before disqualifying them.
An Sionnach
23rd March 2025, 14:10
Make the car slower… and also pick up a penalty for contravening rules designed to prevent teams from getting an unfair advantage. Why did they change their setup when Lewis had been the class of the field? The sprint was longer than the first stint for many. Were the changes to help with high fuel loads?
I still think refuelling should be allowed. They can have a fuel limit for the entire weekend and let the drivers use them as they wish. This would mean no high fuel part of the race.
Doh
23rd March 2025, 14:11
If the set up changes really did make the car worse/slower (for Lewis at least) it’s a shame because he maybe have been able to fight further up
DaveW (@dmw)
23rd March 2025, 14:22
They won the sprint going away and piling seconds on McLaren then changed the set up?
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
23rd March 2025, 14:57
Hamilton is reasonably good at the track, plus they had the car lower than full race spec.
Im surprised they let Le Clerc run that flexible front wing till the end of the race and then disQualified him. They should have ordered him to swap the nose.
The problem with this type of formula is that it begs people to run the suspension stiffer than the materials the car is made of, in order to better regulate the air pressure/flow under the floor. And this isn’t great for the driver’s spines.
PeteB (@peteb)
23rd March 2025, 17:37
He did exactly the same thing last year….
https://www.racefans.net/2024/04/21/hamilton-takes-responsibility-for-bad-set-up-change-after-poor-race/
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
23rd March 2025, 19:36
You are thinking of COTA, not last year.
its easier to keep a lower air pressure / control the flow of the air in the tunnels when the car is lower to the ground. the higher up the car is, the higher the pressure, the less effective the diffuser is at vacuuming up the underside of the car and sucking it to the ground.
If I were HAM’s race engineer, i would be looking at suspension travel / how upset the suspension / levelness of the car w/ respect to the track + height off of track, to see if Lewis can improve his cornering by creating a more stable scheme for attacking corners. He should really work on keeping the car as dead level and close to the ground as possible at all times. Maybe the sim can help w/ this. And only upset the car, after the overtake / blocking maneuver.
F1 in Figures (@f1infigures)
23rd March 2025, 20:06
@pcxmac He was referring to Hamilton’s disastrous set-up change between sprint race and qualifying.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
24th March 2025, 8:24
Wonder if it’s an unintended consequence of the new front suspension design. The one the rod-pullers and anoraks were all excited about in pre-season testing, but is usually never mentioned again after that.
Also having a sprint race so early in the season – more lovely narrative, chaos and (somehow) $$$…