Ferrari is “just not quick enough” to trouble the front of the grid, thinks Lewis Hamilton, as the Scuderia hopes fixing its car balance will get it ahead of 2026 Formula 1 rival McLaren in Japan.
Charles Leclerc and Hamilton finished fifth and sixth in second practice on Friday, shipping around seven and eight tenths respectively to session leader Oscar Piastri in the McLaren.
Over half of that came right at the start of the lap as the Ferrari lost close to four tenths on Suzuka’s home straight and into Turn 1. The Ferraris gained some time in slower speed corners, but then fell further behind on the straights against the Mercedes-engined cars.
But energy deployment is only a part of the equation as Hamilton and Leclerc were also struggling with the SF-26’s tricky balance. The seven-time world champion feels improving the car set-up itself will already go a long way towards being back into the fight with McLaren behind championship leaders Mercedes.
“The car generally feels okay, it’s just not quick enough at the moment and I think it’s just balance,” said Hamilton. “We’ve just got to work hard overnight to try and figure out how we can set the car up better.
“Ultimately there’s a lot of time on the straights, it’s four tenths into Turn 1 at the moment compared to McLaren. So deployment is part of it, I’m sure we can do a better job on improving on that and then I think there’s more performance in the car to extract if we can get the set-up right.”
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Photo by: Clive Rose / Formula 1 via Getty Images
Ferrari’s sporting director Diego Ioverno felt the deficit was largely as expected though, with the Italian outfit not as strong on one-lap pace as it has been over a race stint.
“I think the gap is more or less where we expected it to be, also quite in line with the first two races, especially in the short runs,” the Italian said. “Nevertheless, we have to try to improve, we’ll do what we can do, analysing data and trying to fix some small issues that we had.
“I think you heard Lewis complaining about the lack of confidence. The track is difficult with the new surface in the second part. A key factor would be to make sure the tyres are working from the first lap. Nothing unexpected, let me say.”
Those thoughts come despite McLaren claiming that it will remain behind Mercedes and Ferrari, who have been the two strongest teams at the start of the new regulations.
“Despite Oscar topping the timesheets in FP2, the underlying pictures appear to have remained the same as previous races,” it stated in a press release.
“Since the opening double-header, the team has worked hard to understand how to extract performance from the 2026 regulation power units, and some progress has been made in this area.
“However, with no upgrades to the car this weekend, our performance in FP2 is likely to be an outlier over the weekend, as it’s expected that Mercedes and Ferrari will resume their positions as the first and second fastest teams as we head into competitive running.”
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– The Autosport.com Team
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