Hamilton reveals Ferrari held 'huge discussions' after slick-tyre blunder dropped him from second to the back at Sepang

'It wasn't good enough': Ferrari's tyre gamble backfires

Lewis Hamilton has revealed Ferrari held a "huge discussion" to reflect on a strategic error at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia that he says "wasn't good enough" — the decision to start on slick dry tyres that sent him plummeting from second on the grid to almost the back of the field.

Ferrari fitted both Hamilton and team-mate Charles Leclerc with slicks at last weekend's race at Sepang, which started on a wet track the Italian squad anticipated would quickly dry out once the race began. The call was proven wrong: the 14 of 22 drivers who started on the intermediate tyre gained a huge advantage, and Hamilton fell to almost the back of the pack in the opening stages.

The seven-time world champion ultimately produced a stunning fightback to finish on the podium in third, but having fallen 106 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli, he reiterated his desire to see improvement from his team ahead of this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix.

"It wasn't good enough and we've had a huge discussion about it," Hamilton told Sky Sports F1. "And we're going to try and work on how we can come to a better conclusion more consistently in the future."

'McLaren made the same mistake and the same call'

Before revealing those talks, Hamilton had defended Ferrari from what he feels is disproportionate criticism compared with their Formula 1 rivals. McLaren also started the race in Sepang on dry tyres and suffered the same fate, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri sliding towards the back of the pack.

"We do for some reason as a team get far more flack than anybody else," the seven-time world champion said. "McLaren made the same decision and no one even said anything about it. You know, they made some excuse of some sort. McLaren made the same mistake and the same call."

'The call didn't come from the strategist'

Hamilton also offered a specific defence of Ferrari's strategists, insisting they alone were not responsible for the starting tyre choice.

"It was ultimately a mistake but it's not the strategists. I think, unfortunately, my strategy team gets the brunt of the [criticism for the] call," he said. "But in actual fact, the call didn't come from the strategist. The call comes from collectively, us working together."

"(Team principal) Fred [Vasseur], (head of track engineering) Matteo [Togninalli], myself, my engineer, we make the decision together. And we discuss it and we put our input, we put all our ideas and information into the pot, whether that's good or not… I went into the pit lane, I'm like, 'it's wet'. I go to the pit wall, I'm like, 'it's wet'. Come back to the garage, I'm like, 'guys, we should be on the inters'. And then they all give a different perspective. And if you've got three people giving you a different perspective, you eventually get convinced by that. And you're like, 'OK, I'll go with what you suggest.' And that's how you work as a team. And you hope three are more right than one. But in some scenarios, it's the other way around. And you were right and your gut feeling was right. And then you're like, 'damn, I should have gone with my gut'. But everyone's generally trying to do the best they can."

'We're here to attack': Hamilton hopeful for Singapore

Hamilton is hopeful Ferrari's car will be suited to the Marina Bay Street Circuit this weekend, with the track potentially providing the team with their best chance of victory over the final seven rounds of the season.

"I think with our car, it's generally good on street circuits, particularly when there's not particularly long straights," Hamilton said. "If you look at the last races, we were quick through corners, not so quick on the straight line. This is a high-drag circuit, so I'm hoping the advantage others have on those long straights kind of comes down a little bit and we can start matching them through keeping up with them on the pace, through corners. I think for us, it's just making sure we've got a great, stable platform underneath us, particularly in the bumpy zones because it's bumpy here."

With Singapore hosting a Sprint weekend for the first time — meaning there is only one practice session before Sprint Qualifying on Friday — Hamilton believes quickly finding a strong setup will be crucial.

"We've looked at Monaco, we've looked at Montreal, we've looked at Baku's setup. We're coming here and it is requesting something different. I've been pushing the car in a certain direction, and I think we are slowly making gains and improvements. We're here to attack. Qualifying is key, and it would be really great if we could start tomorrow on the right foot and then just be attacking in qualifying, but we have to wait and see."

Leclerc: 'The layout seems to be pretty good for us'

Leclerc is also hopeful Singapore could present an opportunity for him or Hamilton to add to their sole victories this season, but is taking nothing for granted. Ferrari failed to meet pre-weekend expectations when many considered them favourites for victory in Monaco and Budapest earlier this year, but claimed surprise victories when Hamilton won in Barcelona and Leclerc at Silverstone.

"Maybe. It definitely is one of those tracks where the layout seems to be pretty good for us," Leclerc said when asked whether Singapore represented Ferrari's best chance of another win this season. "Whether this will pay off or not… Budapest and Monaco were strong layouts for us on paper and it didn't go well. Silverstone was a bad layout on paper and it went really well. I don't know if it tells the full story but we'll give our best. Historically we've been quite strong here but we cannot really rely on the past. We've got to do everything we can to be in the best possible situation. It's also true that the tendency lately has been that we've been losing a bit of performance compared to the guys in front, so to win will be very difficult."

Formula 1 is in Singapore for the last Sprint weekend of the season, with practice and Sprint Qualifying on Friday, the Sprint and Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday, and the Grand Prix itself on Sunday.