"Gutted" Hamilton calls for more Ferrari upgrades after missing Q3
Ferrari lacked pace in Imola qualifying and failed to make Q3
Lewis Hamilton’s first appearance for the Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1 team in front of an Italian crowd was always going to be special, and which makes a below par performance for the home outfit at Imola even more painful.
Hamilton could manage only 12th in Q2, and it was of little comfort that his team mate Charles Leclerc was only one place and just 0.161s ahead.
The double frustration for Hamilton was that for once he felt comfortable in the car – the speed just simply wasn’t there.
After qualifying he called for more updates for the SF-25, while also stressing that for him that this is a “foundation building” year ahead of 2026.
“I definitely feel devastated, I feel just gutted I guess, because the car was generally feeling really good,” he said.
“I honestly felt like the setup was just right, the brakes were working, everything was kind of in place, and we just can't go quicker.
“If you look how quick Max is going through Turn 2 and 3, we just can't match it. And when we put that new soft on at the end, for some reason, it just didn't come alive. There was no extra grip.”
He added: “I just I really thought we were going to be getting through. I thought the car's alive, and watching these guys doing 14.7s. We could just get to 15.7, it's a lot of time missing.”
Lewis insisted that the car felt better to drive after his recent struggles, even if the pace was missing.
“I think we made progress this weekend with the bit that I was talking about before,” he said.
“It's still not where it needs to be. And there's performance in that. And we need more upgrades for sure. We've got to start adding performance to this car.
“Clearly, we're not at the level. I mean, look at Max's rear, it just doesn't move. He's doing, like, I don't know, like 6-10kph faster through Turn 2 than us, and we can't match that. Same with the McLarens.
“So we just got to keep pushing, keep applying pressure. I believe that the guys can find some performance.”
However time is running out as every team turns its full R&D focus towards 2026 – and Hamilton himself is also eyeing next season.
“I think this is at least from my side, this is a foundation building year,” he said. “And getting to grips with everything within the team, making changes that are needed in order to help the team navigate to success long term.
“That's stuff that I'm focused on. In the background, there's a lot of improvements we can make across the board, as well as a faster car. I have all the faith and beliefs we can do that.”
In the meantime he has a race to do at Imola on Sunday. Ferrari has better long run pace than qualifying performance, but actually using it and passing people won’t be easy.
“This is not a great race circuit to great circuit to race on,” Lewis said when I asked about race form. “It's great to drive a single lap, but overtaking, you get stuck in a DRS train, and there's not going to be a lot of movement tomorrow.
“But we are all on softer tyres, and see what we can do strategy-wise. We'll try and pick them off if we can. I feel like race pace could be good.”