Hamilton blames car balance for US GP fourth as Leclerc takes optimistic Austin podium
Hamilton's balance woes cost him a podium
Lewis Hamilton came home fourth at the United States Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas and pointed squarely at the balance of his Ferrari as the root of his problems, despite the Scuderia arriving in Austin buoyed by a fresh upgrade package.
Much had been made of Ferrari's promise this weekend, with the team bringing upgrades to the Circuit of The Americas. Anticipation built further as both Leclerc and Hamilton topped Friday and Saturday's practice sessions respectively. But in Qualifying their rivals raised their game, leaving the pair to start Sunday's race in fourth and fifth behind the two Red Bulls, while Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli sealed an impressive pole position.
From the lights out, Antonelli controlled a dominant victory on a one-stop strategy, while the Ferrari pair were instantly in the action, usurping Isack Hadjar before both challenged Max Verstappen. Leclerc eventually found a way past Verstappen before the Dutchman retook second, only for Leclerc to fight back and reclaim the position late on. Hamilton, though, missed out on the podium in fourth.
The seven-time World Champion cited balance issues as he fought to extract the best from his car.
"Yeah, I mean, I didn't have a new tyre to start on, so it put me a bit on the back foot compared to the cars ahead of me," he said after the race. "So, I had a little bit more deg in that first stint than they did. A new tyre to a used tyre is about two seconds of race pace so I lost that in the first stint. But just balance was my biggest issue — balance was off. But I think the team did a great job in the stops and the strategy."
Hamilton acknowledged he was encouraged for the races to come but conceded he has work to do to nail the car's set-up earlier.
"I think Charles obviously did a great job this weekend for us to get… it's good for points to be ahead of McLaren so we can keep second in the Constructors' Championship," he continued. "I've really got to try to extract more from this car in the next couple of races. I do believe I could be quicker if we could just get the set-up right. It wasn't far off, well it was at the beginning of the stint, and I just need to look into how we get to that conclusion and how I end up in that situation because it's happened a few times, like in Silverstone for example. I just couldn't keep up with Charles because he had much more front wing than I did and then I couldn't turn the car. It was the same today."
Leclerc optimistic despite Red Bull fight
Charles Leclerc was pleased with his own performance on the way to second and believed Ferrari would have finished there regardless of whether they had tried a one-stop strategy like Mercedes.
"I mean it was a good race and I enjoyed the race," he said. "I enjoyed the first lap with Max. I enjoyed later on, as well, with Lando [Norris] and Max again and that was nice. The pace was quite strong as well. Mercedes, though, saw something that maybe Red Bull and I didn't really consider seriously, which was the one-stop and they made it work very nicely. So, this is something we'll have to analyse but the whole race has been very good. And anyway, I think if we were on a one-stop, it wouldn't have changed much the results."
Like his team-mate, the Monegasque is hopeful that, with the upgrades added in Austin, Ferrari can be optimistic for the future and build on the momentum gathered.
"I think so, but only time will tell," he answered when asked if he felt they could continue this kind of run. "I think in the last three, four races we had upgrades on the car in a direction that I quite like, that we are pushing in, and it makes me feel a bit more confident with the car and so I'm optimistic for the future. Then it's also true that we are at the end of the season. We are not expecting to bring anything, any big upgrades. But now it's all about optimising what we have, and we are not in a bad place, so I'm looking forward to see how it will be like on different tracks in the next two weeks."