Hamilton says Ferrari still off pace in Barcelona

Lewis Hamilton said Ferrari remained “quite a chunk off” McLaren and Mercedes after Friday practice in Barcelona, with the team’s major upgrade package failing to produce an immediate step as his disrupted day left him unable to properly judge it.

Hamilton ended FP2 ninth, 1.2 seconds slower than pace-setter Lando Norris, while team-mate Charles Leclerc finished fourth, 0.373s off the pace. Ferrari had arrived in Spain with significant changes to the front wing, floor, sidepods and diffuser, but Hamilton said he had “zero feel” for what the package had added.

“I have zero feel of it, so I have no idea where... We’re obviously not quick,” Hamilton said. “Charles has obviously had two sessions, and I think he’s four-tenths or something off the McLarens and the Mercedes, so clearly we’re quite a chunk off still, but hopefully tomorrow we can try and close the gap a bit.”

Part of the problem was that Hamilton had only one session to work with after Ferrari handed his car to Ferrari Driver Academy racer Dino Beganovic in FP1 for one of the team’s four mandatory rookie appearances this season. That left the seven-time world champion trying to complete his whole Friday program in the hotter second session, on a track where tyre life quickly became a limiting factor.

Hamilton said that made Friday “an unusual one” because “the majority of the drivers, maybe not Lando, those who missed the first session were quite far off their team-mates in the second session.” He added: “The grip was the lowest, with this generation of car, that I’ve ever had. Because it’s so hot, the tyres only last one lap, so it’s tricky to get into FP2 and only have two laps, basically. I don’t really know what I’m going to do with the car, hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.”

His session was also complicated by car problems. Hamilton said he had a front-wing issue that made tyre preparation harder, while separate reports from the session said he complained of something wrong with the rear. He said afterward that “there is still work to be done, but we gathered useful data” and that Ferrari would focus on overnight changes.

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur, speaking after practice, described the day as “odd” for everyone but “good” for Ferrari overall. Vasseur said the conditions at Barcelona made it “very difficult to put a lap together” and noted that the team had spent the day running back-to-back comparisons on “a lot of new elements on the car, new package, different components.” He also warned that tyre degradation “will be difficult, for sure,” leaving Ferrari with work to do if the upgrades are to bring it closer to the front through the rest of the weekend.