Scuderia Ferrari HP leaves China with 30 points, the second highest team score of the weekend, although well aware that there is plenty of work to do to close the gap to the leaders. After a win for Lewis Hamilton and a fifth place for Charles Leclerc in yesterday’s Sprint race, the Monegasque finished in the same position today, one spot ahead of his team-mate. They both did their best, but the SF-25’s pace, in Leclerc’s slowed with a damaged front wing was not capable of delivering more.
However, it is just the start of the season and the gaps are all very close, so an improvement of just a few tenths could see big gains in terms of the results. It’s a Formula 1 truism that if you can’t win, then try and bring home as many points as possible and the team managed that today. It split the strategy between the two drivers to give them both the best possible chance.
The race. Both Ferraris got off the line well, getting the jump on Max Verstappen to move up to fourth and fifth. Lewis and Charles were on two different lines going into the first corner and they came dangerously close into the following left hander, touching slightly. It left Charles without a left front wing endplate, but the team did not pit him for a new nose as car performance was still good and they did not want to waste the eight or so seconds required for the change. Lewis was the first of the pair to struggle on the Medium tyres, so he pitted on lap 13 to switch to Hards.
Charles came in two laps later, after which the decision was taken to swap their positions, a choice Hamilton suggested given that Leclerc had better pace, which allowed him to finish fourth. Having pitted earlier, Lewis needed to pit again for another set of Hards, whereas Charles was able to go all the way to the flag. In the closing stages, Hamilton set off in pursuit of Verstappen, showing excellent pace. But the Dutchman defended brilliantly, before pushing on to overtake Leclerc with three laps remaining. Therefore, the Ferraris finished fifth and sixth, bringing home 18 points.
A break before the first triple-header. The team now heads home where it will analyse all the data from the first two races. So far, the SF-25 has only shown its true potential occasionally and it will be vital to ensure that in future it can do that consistently. Racing resumes in a fortnight in Japan, the first of a triple-header, followed by Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
Charles Leclerc #16
We had a really good race car today and the pace to fight with the guys in the front. Unfortunately, my front wing was damaged at the start. I took the inside line at turn 1, while Lewis was more to the outside and didn’t know I was there and I didn’t expect him to come back to the inside, so it was just an unfortunate incident.
I lost quite a lot of downforce from the damage and we did a good job to make it to the end in that shape. We decided not to change the front wing during the pitstop, since that would mean losing 8 seconds and having to overtake a few cars to recover positions. I gave it my all to overtake George (Russell), but we struggled quite a bit in Turn 12 compared to him, which made it impossible to pass him.
It could have been a better day for our team, but it’s positive to see that our race pace is there. The huge amount of support from the grandstands this weekend was great to see and put a smile on my face.
Lewis Hamilton #44
Tough day but a positive weekend overall and we’ve made some good progress since Melbourne. We tried some new set up changes for qualifying and the race that didn’t work out, but that’s a learning we can take with us moving forward.
I got a good start off the line but started to struggle with pace as the race continued, so suggested swapping with Charles to try and maximise our opportunities as a team. The two-stop strategy helped find some good pace towards the final few laps but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to gain places.
We’ll go through everything, take the learnings, and come back stronger. It’s a long road to the championship, and we’ll keep pushing.
Fred Vasseur Team Principal
It was tough today with strange situations. On one side of the garage there was the damage to the front wing for Charles and on the other side it was actually more difficult for Lewis, after yesterday when his tyre management was excellent, while today he struggled more. For him, the two-stop was definitely the right choice as tyre degradation was quite significant and if the others had to pit it would have made sense. Now we will have to look into it, to understand why we struggled more than expected. Tyre management was difficult for everyone with tyres struggling and then coming back. It’s hard to read but we can take some positives, such as Charles’ very good pace despite the damage to his front wing. In these conditions we finished 20 seconds behind McLaren and ten behind Mercedes. We just need to do a better job to make sure we always exploit the car’s potential and we will focus on this immediately.
