Vasseur reveals why Hamilton struggled in Budapest qualifying
On the back of a tough qualifying session for Lewis Hamilton at the Hungarian Grand Prix, the Scuderia's team boss Fred Vasseur claimed that it was difficult to get the tyre into the right temperatures window.
Ferrari endured a challenging day at the Hungaroring. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton displayed great pace in final practice, ending up third and fourth, respectively.
However, the conditions changed massively for qualifying, with track temperatures having dropped and the wind having picked up. This seemingly affected Ferrari more than their rivals.
Hamilton struggled in Q1, but made it through into Q2, albeit he was unable to achieve anything more than a P12 on the grid for tomorrow’s Budapest race.
His team-mate Leclerc struggled across the opening two sessions as well, but progressed into Q3. After his first hot lap, he found himself in a disappointing P7, but he delivered again when it mattered to secure an absolutely astonishing pole position for tomorrow’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Speaking to Sky Italia, Vasseur stated that it was difficult to get the tyre into the right temperatures window in the constantly-changing conditions.
“We know that the out lap is crucial. If you lighten the tyres in Turn 1, you risk it at the end of the lap or you slide too much.
"Hamilton went out in Q2, Charles was just a few hundredths of a second away. Lewis was just a few hundredths of a second away, but it’s always difficult to manage the out lap. Of course, he’s frustrated because he only missed the lap in Q2. It’s a shame.
“We have to learn from this. The result is OK, but we can’t rest on our laurels. In the race simulation, we were consistent [and] similar to McLaren. Let’s focus on ourselves, managing the tyres and coming up with a good strategy, and everything will be fine.”
The Frenchman, who secured a contract extension earlier this week, stated that the SF-25 has struggled to extract everything from the tyres over a single lap since the start of the season.
“We’ve always struggled to get the tyres into the right temperature window this year, and in Q2 we were almost out - we made it through by just a tenth,” he explained.
“In the end, Charles managed to get the tyres in the right window. It’s all very sensitive - the gap between first and tenth is small. In the end, we’re all right on the limit with the tyres.
“There were lots of ups and downs, but then we were stronger than expected. We have to remember how tough the session was, and we need to understand what happened so we can improve in the future.”
