Hamilton, difficulty or ‘hide and seek’? “Positive sensations, but the track is severe…”

Real difficulties? Fresh from his first victory in Ferrari and an extraordinary period of form, Lewis Hamilton was eagerly awaited at the Austrian GP weekend. However, the start was not the best for the seven-time world champion: in FP2, in fact, Hamilton closed the session in fifth position, ahead of George Russell but six tenths behind the leader Antonelli and also behind the two McLarens and Max Verstappen’s Red Bull. Even in Catalonia, however, the Englishman only ‘woke up’ in qualifying, after the setup of his car had been completely redone. It is therefore difficult to understand how much the SF-26 is in difficulty and how much it was Hamilton himself who was hiding. Treacherous track “I would say that it was a challenging but solid start to the weekend – declared Hamilton at the end of the day, after having nevertheless edged out more than two tenths of a second from teammate Charles Leclerc – the high temperatures which made an already demanding track even more difficult. The car gave positive sensations straight away, but this track is very severe and even a small flaw in the balance can cost a lot of lap time. We certainly have some work to do to find the right set-up and be able to unlock further a bit of performance. We need to stay focused, understand where we are losing and see what we can do for tomorrow.”

Automobile Magazine – Formula1 English, News

2026-06-27 04:31:00