Lewis Hamilton believes it is difficult to predict where Ferrari will stand in the pecking order in Mexico compared to Mercedes. Speaking to media, including Sportskeeda, after the Austin race, the Briton expressed puzzlement over the swings in performance between the two teams.
Although Mercedes secured a strong result in Singapore, they finished behind both Ferraris in Austin. Charles Leclerc claimed a podium with third place, while Lewis Hamilton finished fourth. George Russell ended sixth, and Kimi Antonelli placed 13th. The contrast between Mercedes’ first and fourth in Singapore and their Austin results highlighted the unpredictability of team performances.
Hamilton admitted it is challenging to explain why the pendulum of performance shifts from circuit to circuit between the two teams. Asked by Sportskeeda if he expected Ferrari to have a performance advantage in Mexico too, Lewis Hamilton replied:
“It’s pretty It’s really difficult But one weekend Mercedes won the last race And then this race they were behind us. So it’s really really difficult to know why that is and why there is a swings in roundabout. But I’m really just hoping our cars better next weekend.”
Lewis Hamilton believes setup and strategy compromised his chances of a podium
Lewis Hamilton believes the setup from FP1 did not work well for the entire sprint weekend. He felt that he could not maintain the same pace from the first practice session throughout the rest of the weekend. Reflecting on the strategy that created a ten-second gap between himself and teammate Charles Leclerc, he acknowledged that there were still positives to take from the weekend.
The Briton feels that a podium slipped away but is encouraged by the overall performance trajectory. Asked about the race performance compared to the underwhelming qualifying and sprint, Lewis Hamilton said,
“Yeah, it definitely felt better. Today, I think we went after P1, we kind of went somehow the wrong way in setup wise and just didn’t have the pace that I had in P1 for the rest of the weekend. But, yeah, there’s lots of positives to take them from today. Strategy left me out, I ended up 10 seconds behind. So it was a bit frustrating in that respect, but great points of the team.”
Asked about being close to a podium and if the car felt much better than before, Lewis Hamilton replied:
“So close, but still so far. Definitely a trend moving forward’s going in the right direction and I’m definitely feeling better in the car and I definitely get a deep dive in these next couple of days trying to figure out how can extract more performance from the car get the car at a slightly better place. But get the car at a slightly better place but overall pretty decent the team did a great job today.”
Lewis Hamilton has scored 142 points for Ferrari and sits sixth in the driver’s championship standings, while teammate Charles Leclerc has accumulated 192 points, placing him fifth. Ferrari are engaged in a close battle for sixth in the constructors’ championship, trailing Mercedes by seven points but holding a three-point advantage over Red Bull Racing.
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Edited by Tushhita Barua
