Lewis Hamilton revealed Ferrari made “small tweaks” to the SF-25 setup that took the car to a “knife edge” in balance for qualifying, as he gets set to line up P5 for the Chinese Grand Prix.
Hamilton had taken pole and what became a dominant victory in the 19-lap Sprint earlier on Saturday, but he and team-mate Charles Leclerc have locked out the third row for the main event on Sunday.
Lewis Hamilton reveals minor setup ‘tweaks’ after Chinese GP Sprint victory
After the Sprint, parc fermé re-opens for the teams and drivers to allow any setup changes they require ahead of qualifying for the Grand Prix, after which time their setups become set again for the remainder of the weekend.
While the majority of drivers will have opted to make adjustments to their car, with more data gathered and tyre supplier Pirelli having raised the required minimum pressure of the tyres between Friday and Saturday, Hamilton revealed his minor changes between the Sprint and qualifying led to balance changes in his SF-25 “from one corner to the next”.
“We started really optimistic, naturally,” the seven-time World Champion told Sky F1 after the session.
“But then we made just a couple of small changes, tweaks to the car, and it really put the car on a knife edge.
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“I think the wind picked up a little bit as well, so the car was just trickier to drive and harder to put laps together.”
When asked if there were certain car characteristics that would help him even further, Hamilton replied: “No one particular thing – you want a car that’s balanced.
“So at the moment, from one corner to the next, the car has a different balance, so you want a car that has a similar balance everywhere.
“As I said, we made the change, and then all of a sudden, high speed was over balanced, and so you just want a car that you can rely on – and when you attack the corners, you know it’s going to stay with you, instead of lock up and go on, or snap into oversteer, and when it’s unpredictable, then you have no hope.”
Hamilton qualified ahead of team-mate Leclerc, however, who will start one place behind in P6 after lapping 0.094s slower than his Ferrari colleague.
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