Lewis Hamilton confirms a car issue in Spain but says Ferrari won’t allow him to share full details ahead of the Canada GP.
During Thursday’s media day in Canada, Lewis Hamilton stated that the technical issue that affected his Ferrari during the Spanish Grand Prix had “significantly hindered” his performance.
Following a disappointing sixth-place finish in Barcelona, the seven-time world champion described the race as “the worst he had ever experienced” in a Ferrari, struggling to find pace—something uncharacteristic for him.
Hamilton climbed to fourth place early in the race before losing ground, which led to a team order favoring his faster teammate, Charles Leclerc.
He was also overtaken by Nico Hülkenberg and his Sauber after a late safety car intervention and finished seventh, later being promoted by one position due to Max Verstappen’s penalty.
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur revealed after the race that both Hamilton and Leclerc had experienced issues with their cars, but did not provide further details.
Hamilton remained silent when asked about the issue ahead of this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, but confirmed that it had affected his performance.
“Hugely, hugely impactful. Unfortunately, the team does not want us to talk about it too much, but we both had issues that really hampered us from mid-race onwards,” Hamilton said.
“What I didn’t know was whether I had that issue, but I obviously said on the radio that it was the worst car I had ever driven, and that was truly the case with this problem.”
“At the end of the race, I thought, ‘Damn, I’ve never experienced anything that bad for that long during a race.’”
Hamilton appeared visibly downbeat after the difficult outing in Spain and apologized to the media for his demeanor during the post-race interviews.
The 40-year-old Brit admitted he felt “relieved” to learn about the issue affecting his car during the team debrief after the interviews.
“It was only after the TV interviews that I contacted the engineers and we found out there was an issue. So it was a relief to learn that, and I really didn’t feel so bad afterwards.”
