Lewis Hamilton didn’t sound completely satisfied despite outqualifying Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc at the Canadian Grand Prix. Hamilton equals his best starting position with P5.
During his post-session interviews, the Ferrari driver expressed his ongoing discomfort behind the wheel. He’s now almost halfway through his debut season in red.
While Hamilton beat Leclerc for the second race in a row and just the third time this year, he was still nearly seven-tenths off George Russell’s pole time. Ferrari had looked like contenders heading into the session.
The 40-year-old also recognises that he may well have been behind his teammate had Leclerc produced a clean lap. Driver number 16 set a purple first sector before a major slide.
Lewis Hamilton unhappy that Ferrari ‘wasted’ tyres at Canadian Grand Prix
Hamilton is bound to raise questions about Ferrari’s strategy in the Saturday evening debrief at the Canadian Grand Prix. There were perhaps two areas where the team faltered.
The first was their failure to use the medium tyres. While the soft is ordinarily the qualifying tyre, the medium seemed to yield more performance after Pirelli’s aggressive selection.
Russell and Max Verstappen secured front-row spots after running the yellow-marked rubber, while Kimi Antonelli beat Hamilton to fourth place.
The seven-time world champion was also frustrated that Ferrari deployed him on new soft tyres at the end of Q1. After Riccardo Adami told him to abort his lap because he was safe from elimination, Hamilton replied: “Eesh. Wasting these tyres.”
This naturally had a knock-on effect later in the session, and he was forced to use worn tyres for his first run in Q3. A necessary evil at previous events, it seemed overly cautious this time.
Lewis Hamilton’s vintage moment in Montreal shouldn’t be underappreciated
Ferrari’s 2025 car is nowhere near as good as they had hoped, and it may be too late now to cure its ills. That puts an extra onus on the much-maligned strategy department to maximise the team’s limited potential.
Many of the operational criticisms directed at the Scuderia have concerned team orders. They were particularly hesitant to swap their cars in Miami, leading to stinging radio criticism from Hamilton, eager to pursue the rivals ahead.
Fred Vasseur and co. would also have expected more from their superstar signing this season. But Hamilton did have a vintage moment in Canada, with Martin Brundle in awe of his late braking for the turn 10 hairpin.
He’s been the driver who’s put together a clean weekend while Leclerc has repeatedly faltered. Carlos Sainz says Hamilton needs plenty of time to adapt at Ferrari, but reports this week indicate that they’re unlikely to receive that luxury in Italy.
