Hamilton no longer so optimistic
After a complicated Friday and Saturday, Lewis Hamilton in Suzuka was unable to do better than sixth place in qualifying, almost eight tenths away from the poleman Andrea Kimi Antonelli. The Englishman, after a start to the weekend far from optimal, did not seem so hopeful of being able to close the gap to Mercedes, while still trying to instill confidence in Ferrari in its attempt to catch up to the top.
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“It seems that McLaren has taken a step forward”, admitted Lewis Hamilton commenting on Oscar Piastri’s third place and Lando Norris’s fifth, continuing: “Of course they have the Mercedes engine which at the moment is much further ahead of us and we have a huge amount of work to do. Even recovering 2-3 or 4 tenths, we would still be very far away and therefore to close such a gap it will take a big push from everyone.”
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Hamilton is afraid that McLaren could regularly put Ferrari behind them: “When they start extracting more power from the Mercedes engine, then we will lose further ground. The engine is part of the problem, but here the chassis is also clearly not up to the level of the Mercedes, as they are faster in the corners. In terms of performance we are clearly inferior to the Mercedes power unit, we don’t know if this is because of the larger turbo, more power or whatever. We will find out, we have to try to understand it and work harder to try to reduce the gap.”
