MIAMI GARDENS: Lewis Hamilton arrived at the Miami Grand Prix admittedly frustrated with his slow start to the Formula 1 season driving for Ferrari.
There was little improvement to his performance, and Hamilton was ordered by Ferrari to give up seventh place in Sunday’s race to teammate Charles Leclerc. Hamilton settled for eighth, his worst finish since he was disqualified from the second race of the season.
Even so, the seven-time F1 champion was upbeat after the race.
“I generally enjoyed the race,” Hamilton said. “I think this weekend, while we were not as quick as we want to be, I feel like I had a better weekend in general. The result might not show it, but I was 12th to seventh.”
Hamilton even briefly thought he’d have a fantastic day when a change to medium tires made him feel “the car really come alive and I felt super optimistic in that moment.”
Even so, Ferrari had nothing for McLaren Racing, which went 1-2 with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
“I think it wasn’t a good weekend ... we can’t be satisfied with P7 and P8,” said Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur. “You start P8 and P12, it’s almost impossible to fight your way back and challenge the cars ahead. The other thing is that McLaren was probably on another planet. We had enough pace to battle with Red Bull and Mercedes, but not with McLaren.”
Piastri has four victories this year — three in a row — and Norris has one as McLaren has won five of the first six races. Four-time defending F1 champion Max Verstappen has one win, while Ferrari has yet to even challenge with Hamilton and Leclerc.
Compounding problems for Ferrari in Miami was a crash on Saturday when Leclerc lost control of his car as he headed out to the track for the sprint race. He wasn’t able to compete in the sprint and Ferrari had to hustle to even have him ready for qualifying.
Hamilton finished third in the sprint race but then failed to carry the momentum into qualifying. His only complaint after the race, though? Not the team orders to give Leclerc position, but in how slow Ferrari was to communicate the plan.
It seemed that Ferrari told Leclerc before the team told Hamilton, so when Leclerc first attempted the pass, it didn’t work. Once Hamilton got the message, the British driver let Leclerc by on the next lap.
“This is not good team work. That’s all I’m going to say,” Hamilton said on the Ferrari team radio.
After the race, Hamilton said he thought he was actually pretty fast when Ferrari called for the position swap.
“I was clearly quick at that moment and I didn’t think the decision came quick enough,” Hamilton said. “And then for sure, in that time, you’re like ‘Come on.’ I have no problems with the team or Charles. I think we can do better, but the car is where we really need to go to work.”
Leclerc said he knows Ferrari’s drama in Miami will make for a compelling controversy in F1, but that the true problem is the car just isn’t good enough.
“We need to do better, that’s for sure. Today was not ideal and was far from maximizing our potential,” he said. “We’ve got to regroup as a team and be better.”
He admitted that like Hamilton, Leclerc is also frustrated by Ferrari’s performance so far this season. His best finish to date was third at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix last month.
“There’s frustration already that you are, I was fighting for P8 and I was not making any gains,” Leclerc said. “I was really struggling with the car, so there’s a frustration of that and then all the rest and it all adds up.”