Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton said Ferrari found an issue on both SF-25s after the Spanish GP which “massively” hampered he and Charles Leclerc.
However, acknowledging that discovery ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix was as far as Hamilton could go, as he revealed that he and Leclerc were under Ferrari instruction to stay tight-lipped on the matter.
Lewis Hamilton honours Ferrari silence request on mystery issue
Crossing the line P7 in Barcelona after being overtaken by Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg in the closing stages, Hamilton bluntly branded the event “the worst race I’ve had, balance-wise.”
That was after Hamilton had radioed in to race engineer Riccardo Adami shortly after the chequered flag to say: “I believe we’ve got something wrong with this car, mate. It’s the worst it’s ever been.”
And Ferrari’s discovery that this was true gave Hamilton a sense of “relief”, though he was not permitted to go into any details.
Asked ahead of the Canadian GP how much that issue had been affecting he and Leclerc, Hamilton said: “Massively.
“Unfortunately, the team yesterday said they didn’t really want us to talk too much about it, but we both had issues that were hindering us massively from halfway through the race already.
“I didn’t know whether or not we had that problem, but I said on the radio that it was the worst-feeling car I’d ever had – and it truly was with that issue. At the end of the race, I was like, ‘jeez, I’ve never experienced something this bad for such a prolonged time through a race’. It wasn’t until after the TV interviews I got back to the engineers and we found out there was an issue.
“It was a bit of a relief to hear that because I didn’t feel so terrible afterwards.”
