David Croft says Ferrari were ‘guilty’ of u-turning on one Spanish Grand Prix decision that impacted Lewis Hamilton

Ferrari jumping up to second in the constructors’ championship after the Spanish Grand Prix doesn’t tell the full story from the most recent race weekend.

Charles Leclerc was the driver who joined McLaren stars Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris on the podium after a frenetic Spanish Grand Prix.

The Monegasque sacrificed his final run in qualifying to give himself an extra set of fresh tyres for the race and it paid off beautifully when Andrea Kimi Antonelli brought out a late safety car.

On the other side of the garage, Lewis Hamilton had a far tougher time.

Hamilton was running in fourth at the start of the race after pulling off a great move on George Russell on the opening lap.

However, Hamilton quickly had to give way to Leclerc as the 27-year-old’s race pace was far superior to that of his teammate.

Team principal Fred Vasseur admitted both of his drivers had issues in Spain, but wouldn’t go into details about what they were.

The race was relatively well managed by Ferrari but commentator David Croft admitted the team didn’t quite live up to what they said ahead of the Grand Prix.

It ended up impacting both of Ferrari’s drivers although Hamilton came off far worse in the end.

READ MORE: All you need to know about Scuderia Ferrari from team principal to factory

David Croft says Ferrari were ‘guilty’ of taking too long to swap their drivers at the Spanish Grand Prix

Croft was a guest on The Fast and The Curious Podcast and speaking about Hamilton’s race strategy, he said: “Look, when you’re in a Ferrari and you’re overtaken by Nico Hulkenberg, albeit in a Ferrari-powered Sauber, you are going to question, is it me really? Am I doing something wrong here?

“It just didn’t go for him really from the outset.

“Once again, I thought Ferrari were a bit guilty of waiting a little bit too long to swap their drivers around.

“And I’m surprised about that because I did ask the question before the race as to, if you’re on a different strategy and you need to swap your drivers, they went, ‘Yep, we’re on it, don’t worry, we’ve got it all covered.’

“It was fairly evident that the minute Charles came up to the back of Lewis, he needed to go past because he had new mediums as well to try and make that strategy work.

“And Lewis was struggling for pace. But the car, we don’t know yet. I haven’t spoken to Ferrari to find out exactly what was wrong with the car.

“Lewis shouldn’t get too down. I think his average finishing position is somewhere around sixth place this year, I think it’s eight points per race that he’s picked up.

“So he’s just basically matched the median for Ferrari in his performances. But he’s not gone to Ferrari to finish sixth.

“He’s gone to Ferrari to get podiums and win races and bar the sprint in China, that hasn’t looked like happening at all.”

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Lewis Hamilton and Fred Vasseur have work to do ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix

Ferrari are already 197 points behind McLaren in the constructors’ championship and it’s hard to see the Scuderia catching their rivals this season.

Antonelli’s reliability issues and Red Bull’s lack of a second driver capable of contributing points have surprisingly made Ferrari the best of the rest in the standings at this stage of the campaign.

However, Hamilton and Vasseur will know that Ferrari quickly need to take steps forward.

Vasseur wants Ferrari to stay humble as they look to improve the SF-25 while still developing next year’s car.

Ferrari want to fix the car’s rear suspension but if that doesn’t make the Scuderia a competitive force then they may have to abandon this season.

That’s the last thing Hamilton will want to hear, however, he’ll be more concerned with working out why he was so far off the pace of Leclerc in Spain.