Ferrari not delighted with overall pace, but Hamilton felt improved feeling in Miami
Having failed to fight for pole position in sprint qualifying, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were left to rue the outright pace of their SF25, but the seven-time F1 champion indicated that he discovered a few "encouraging signs" after his struggles in previous qualifying sessions.
Ferrari had a quiet start to their weekend, with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton having looked a few tenths of a second adrift of their direct rivals, McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes during the sole practice session.
In sprint qualifying, the Scuderia managed to get both cars into SQ3, although Hamilton needed a last-gasp effort in the middle part of the short session, having failed to deliver a good enough lap at the start of SQ2.
In the last qualifying session, neither driver could compete for the front two rows, with Leclerc and Hamilton having secured P6 and P7 respectively.
The results left neither driver happy after a day where they just did not have the pace to compete with Mercedes, McLaren or Red Bull, with Leclerc admitting that Ferrari are currently only able to fight for the positions behind the top three teams.
"We’re not happy with our position. There wasn’t much room for improvement today, and it looks like this is our baseline for now. I’ll try to have a good start in tomorrow’s Sprint and take it from there. It isn’t an easy weekend so far, so we have lots of work to do."
Having been half a second off the pace set by his Mercedes replacement Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Hamilton reflected on sprint qualifying: "We’re not quite where we want to be just yet, but there were definitely some encouraging signs, especially in SQ1 where the car felt more connected. There’s still work to do, but we’re focused on maximising the package we have and continuing to build from here."
“It was a better session. P1 was probably a bit better. “The car was a bit nicer to drive in P1. We’re just lacking the speed. Just got to keep working on from there.”
When asked if it would be possible for Ferrari to make progress in the sprint race, Hamilton replied: “Not really. All the cars [ahead] are faster. I don’t know what else to say.”
“There’s always ideas. Whether they’re right or not. There’s definitely learnings to take from today and setup changes we’ve made, how the car behaved. There’s definitely work to do to pick up speed going into the rest of the weekend.”
In contrast to the Monegasque and British driver, Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur sounded a more optimistic note, claiming that the SF25 struggled for the right balance, but the situation could change in race trim.
"Congratulation to Kimi (Antonelli) for his mega lap, he did a very good job and he is a long way ahead. Behind him the situation was much closer and we were not far from the guys in front of us but that’s not enough, as we found it difficult to put everything together.
"There were some mistakes and we have struggled with the car balance and that comes at a price in today’s Formula 1. Tomorrow in the Sprint race, tyre management and degradation will come into play and it could be another story."
