28/06/2025 09:15
Lewis Hamilton believes Ferrari's fresh Austrian Grand Prix upgrade
has not "necessarily changed" the team's competitive standings. The
seven-time world champion had to settle for a disappointing 10th on
the timesheets on the opening day at the Red Bull Ring, and found
himself almost a full second off the pace. Lando Norris set the
pace in Spielberg, whilst Charles Leclerc managed to secure fifth
in second practice, yet he too was several tenths adrift of the
McLaren driver. Ferrari's upgrade package consists of a brand-new
floor, which failed to improve the SF-25. In addition, Hamilton
suffered from a gearbox issue in first practice. As a result, a
gearbox change was conducted following the opening session,
something the 40-year-old did praise his team for. "A huge amount
of work went on to bring the floor, but as you can see, it has not
necessarily changed our competitiveness," Hamilton explained. "The
car doesn't actually feel that bad, it is just a huge chunk off
pace-wise, so we need to look into that, and that is about it,
really. "We'll just keep pushing and trying to dial the car in more
and see what we can get, but it is obviously close in the top 10, a
tenth can make a difference, so that's what we'll work on. "It was
not spectacular, and we had a problem with the gearbox in the
morning, which was difficult and frustrating for everyone. "The
boys did a great job keeping it topped up, but you could go out and
only do one lap, so we didn't get the long runs in, but I think we
recovered okay. "They did a great job changing the gearbox and
getting us ready for P2, but Charles was six-tenths off, and I was
close to a second off, so it is not ideal. "But there is lots of
learning, I think we'll make some changes and hopefully, we can get
a little bit closer, but we won't be at the front."
