Ferrari: Lewis Hamilton is fatalistic: “It will take months to close the gap”
A dose of reality as frustrating as it was unexpected: that’s what Ferrari faced at the Austrian Grand Prix, which ended with a lackluster eighth-place finish by Charles Leclerc and a still-disappointing fifth by Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton, fresh off his splendid victory at Montmelò, chose at the end of the day not to beat around the bush regarding the problems plaguing the SF-26. As is widely known, the issue is a delay in engine development compared to the competition. And, with the upcoming Aduo update—which won’t be seen until Monza—the seven-time world champion chose to address the situation in no uncertain terms.
“As early as Friday, we realized we were the fastest through the corners, but we were losing 6 tenths just on the straights compared to those running a Mercedes engine. In qualifying, we managed to minimize the gap, but overheating during the race made things worse. I was convinced I could keep up with Russell’s pace, but the tires degraded almost immediately. I thought Austria’s altitude would help us, but it didn’t. The gap with the Ferrari engine is really very, very big. It will take months and months to close it,” Hamilton admitted to ‘Sky Sport’.
The warning signs, after all, had already emerged on Friday. In the second free practice session, Antonelli had dominated with a time of 1’07″014, while Hamilton finished fifth, 0″597 behind, and Leclerc as far back as eighth, 0″841 behind the Mercedes leader. This gap had already put the Maranello engineers on high alert, forcing them to work intensively through the night to find solutions that, in the race, proved insufficient.
Saturday’s qualifying had partly masked the SF-26’s structural difficulties: Leclerc and Hamilton had managed to secure second and third positions, respectively, with Russell on pole, while Antonelli started fourth. But the race brutally set the record straight. Antonelli himself vividly illustrated the gap, making no secret of his surprise at the Ferrari’s collapse: “They were really slow, and their line was really strange. I almost collided with Leclerc at Turn 1 because of the speed difference. I was going about 30 km/h faster.” Leclerc, for his part, didn’t mince words over the radio: “Terrible car, these tires are f***ed…”
Team principal Vasseur attempted to explain the dramatic step backward from the victory in Barcelona, pointing to a power deficit as the root cause of the problem: “We’ve had a power deficit since the start of the season; we knew that. Even with the Aduo, we couldn’t expect to wave a magic wand and fix everything overnight. Today, in the first stint, we destroyed the tires trying to keep up with the Mercedes; maybe we should have focused on the McLarens.” The French manager then broadened the perspective: “We knew this track would be difficult for us; Barcelona suited us better. Every weekend is a different story. Next week we have to bounce back.”
The result at Spielberg weighs particularly heavily on Leclerc, who is carrying the burden of a winless streak that has now stretched to over twenty months: his last victory dates back to the United States Grand Prix on October 20, 2024. The Monegasque driver had arrived in Austria hoping to turn things around on a track that has historically favored him—in 2022, he secured one of his most significant victories for Ferrari right here at the Red Bull Ring—but the reality of the SF-26 left no room for such ambitions. With just 75 points in the standings and trailing leader Antonelli by 81 points, the situation for driver number 16 remains the most precarious in the entire paddock—even when looking beyond just the Maranello team.
