“I've never experienced that before”: Lewis Hamilton paints a grim picture after Imola GP practice run
Lewis Hamilton’s torrid start to life at Scuderia Ferrari hit another low with his performance during the practice sessions at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix on Friday. The 40-year-old again cut a frustrated figure following Friday’s two sessions at the Imola showpiece.
The seven-time Formula 1 champion had kicked off his day on a promising note with a fifth-place finish during the opening practice session. However, any early sign of optimism quickly faded during the second practice, as he could only manage an 11th-place on the time sheet.
The British driver, competing in his maiden home race with the Ferrari team, was hampered by a persistent brake-related issue—which he kept reiterating on his radio. Sharing his thoughts on what had panned out and his outlook for the remainder of the weekend, Lewis Hamilton detailed that he had never experienced such a situation before.
In a video shared to X by the user account Sims Gazette, he stated:
“P1 was good. I was really, really happy with the car. I felt like we've made a step forward, and it's been pretty positive. Literally changed like two of the tiniest things that shouldn't have had barely any effect at all—the smallest change that I’ve probably done this year—and we had some brake issues that made a massive difference."
"That was all, then a fight with that. That's been a problem. That's been quite a big issue all year, actually. So I’ve never experienced that before. That’s a new thing this year.”
Speaking further, Lewis Hamilton painted a much grimmer picture of the issues with his car, detailing that it is not a problem that can be fixed overnight:
“...it’s not the transition, it’s the performance of... it’s a lottery. We will roll the dice: we’ll put one [set of brakes] on and it works, we’ll put another on and it doesn’t, and we will see. I hope tomorrow we figure something out. We are working on it, for sure.”
Lewis Hamilton’s start to life at the Italian outfit has largely not played out as many had envisaged, following his seismic switch to the team ahead of the current campaign. The former Mercedes driver’s best result with his new team remains his Sprint race win at the Chinese Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton’s teammate Charles Leclerc slams ‘horrendous’ brake issues
Like Lewis Hamilton, teammate Charles Leclerc also had his fair share of issues with the brakes of the Ferrari SF-25 challenger on Friday. The 27-year-old Monegasque driver was also caught as a frustrated figure during the practice session of the Imola event.
Leclerc suffered a subtly contrasting fortune to Hamilton, as while he was 12th on the timing sheet for Free Practice One, he was able to improve to sixth place during the second practice session. However, Leclerc had his complaint about the brake issues that also plagued his teammate, as he stated on his radio to the pit wall:
“The brakes in the mode warm-up are horrendous. Mate... it is not braking," Charles Leclerc said on the radio.
The complaint of the eight-time Grand Prix winner leaves the Ferrari garage with a head-scratcher, as they now face a race against time to fix the issue if they fancy any chance of securing victory at their home Grand Prix on Sunday.
Currently, the Ferrari team sits fourth in the Constructors’ standings after amassing 94 points from the opening six Grand Prix and two sprints. Like Lewis Hamilton, the Maranello outfit is in dire need of a statement performance to quickly revive its season as the European leg of the F1 calendar rolls on.