'How on earth are Ferrari going to win anything with the car they have'

13:03, 02 Jul

Updated: 14:26, 02 Jul

bySavannah Lenz

Lewis Hamilton has slowly been acclimating to Ferrari over the course of the last 11 races. After the Austrian Grand Prix, Craig Slater explains some of the issues Ferrari and Hamilton are having.

After being asked about Hamilton’s pit stop request, Slater said, “I'm not sure he was thinking about the one stop and fending Leclerc off that way. A safety car is what he said to me. The chance of a safety car, a cheap pit stop, was the reason he thought he could extend a bit longer.”

On the Sky Sports F1 Podcast, Slater continued. “His best day was Saturday. That was his most confident qualifying performance for Ferrari. And an improved qualifying all-around for the team. Not only was he not far behind Charles, but he came away knowing exactly how he could have made that time up and got himself on the front row himself rather than his teammates.“

Ferrari need more upgrades to compete

“Positive from that aspect but still a lot of shortcomings in Ferrari terms if you look at it in terms of how far behind McLaren they were.”

Slater then recalls the messages about LiCO (Lifting and Coasting), which came pretty early on in the race.

“That whole business of lifting and coasting and the body language from Leclerc when he was considering it. How on earth are we going to win anything when our car behaves so erratically at high speed that we're having to lift and coast to avoid porpoising or whatever it is.”

Ferrari is currently second in the constructors' championship, but both Hamilton and Leclerc are further down in the drivers' championship standings. Overall, compared to last year, Hamilton is doing better.

“So clearly, there's still a feeling we've come into this season with a car with a lot of flaws, which could possibly even compromise the entire year.”

“Let's see, there's a couple of updates still to come. The floor has done something, but is the floor only slightly optimising, running the car at the wrong ride height effectively? They need this suspension redesigned to properly join the fight with McLaren and Red Bull, don't they?”

Ferrari brought an upgraded floor to Austria, and while it has not been confirmed, they are expected to bring more upgrades to the British Grand Prix.