Lewis Hamilton is confident that the upgrade Ferrari brought to this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix will allow him to get more out of his SF-25 car.
Apart from winning the sprint race in Shanghai three weeks ago, Hamilton has not looked as confident in the car as his teammate Charles Leclerc. After last week’s Suzuka race, he revealed that the team is bringing in upgrades to address a specific issue with the car.
Speaking ahead of this weekend’s race in Bahrain, Hamilton confirmed that he is looking to improve the balance of the car’s rear end.
“We’ve got upgrades this weekend, so I’m excited,” Hamilton told the official F1 channel. “Hopefully we’ll have a bit more downforce.”
“I don’t feel we have many problems, we just lack overall performance when it comes to pace at the moment, and we hope to take a step forward this weekend. For me, it’s the rear of the car, it’s a little unstable, and that’s about it.”
The series’ return to Bahrain after pre-season testing two months ago gives Ferrari a chance to compare the performance of its upgraded car with the original design.
“I’ve done a lot of driving since the tests back then, so I should be a lot more comfortable in the car than I was during the testing here,” said Hamilton. “We’ve got upgrades, we understand the set-up better, so hopefully that should contribute to a better weekend.”
On the other hand, his teammate Charles Leclerc believes that Ferrari saw the full extent of the gap to the leading team in the last race at Suzuki. The Monegasque is also confident that they will close the gap and soon be fully equal to get back into the fight for victories.
“That’s what we’re working on and I’m confident we can close the gap. I don’t think what we’re bringing here will be enough, but I hope that in the short term we’ll have other things that will help us get closer,” Leclerc added.
