Lewis Hamilton hinted that his Ferrari Formula 1 car issues have caused him to lose downforce during Friday practice at the Spanish Grand Prix.
After a positive FP1 session, Hamilton struggled with pace in his more representative second session.
Hamilton finished his second practice in 11th place, just one-tenth of the eighth of Oscar Piastri’s days.
The seven-time world champion has historically excelled at Catrunya-Barcelona.
Hamilton was undefeated in Spain between 2017 and 2021.
Even in his final years with Mercedes, Hamilton won the podiums in 2023 and 2024.
Looking back at Friday’s practice at the Spanish Grand Prix, Hamilton described it as “not a good day.”
“It’s not interesting. It’s a beautiful place. The weather is amazing, but it’s not a good day,” Hamilton said.
“I’m not saying I’m motivating the team at this point. Bow your head and continue working. You can’t give up. You keep on and keep pushing.
“You arrived on Friday and I hope for a good day, but that doesn’t work, but then we had a weekend in Monaco and the car feels very good there. I thought the car would get better today, but it wasn’t that bad on the P1. The P2 was pretty bad.
“Of course, that’s frustrating for everyone. We had some issues and we had lost some downforce, so we hope that that fix for tomorrow will be in a better place.”
Vasseur admits that Ferrari struggled with FP2
Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc set the fifth Quick time in FP2.
However, he was above 0.5 from the piastry.
Looking back at Ferrari’s Friday, team boss Fred Vaserre said, “I think we had a really good pace this morning. We had a little more trouble in the afternoon,” he added. “I think there was a decent rap with Charles before the mistake (turn) 7.
“But the target is to put it together, not just to do good corners. And we struggled a little more at the beginning of each stint in the long stint.
“I think that was true for us, but that’s true for a few other cars. As soon as we left the line, the truck was very dirty with a lot of marble, and it was very difficult to recover.
“Overall, it was a long day. We also gathered good information. It was the first time I’d been running the front wing. I think there will be a lot of work tonight.”
