Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were helpless against the chronic rear tire degradation of the Ferrari SF-26 at the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix. Hamilton, who started the race from third place, planned to put pressure on leader George Russell, but tire wear triggered by high temperatures forced him to make three pit stops. Leclerc, who started from second place, finished the race in eighth, experiencing a major disappointment.
Hamilton: 'The rear tires went down in every set'‘
Hamilton made a promising start in the first stint, overtaking teammate Leclerc and Max Verstappen; however, his balance quickly deteriorated in the hot weather. He only managed 13 laps on hard tires in the second stint; he switched to soft tires during the virtual safety car, but this move couldn't prevent the long hard tire stretch in the final stint. Falling behind McLaren's Oscar Piastri, who moved up to fourth place after two stops, Hamilton told Sky: “I was on the attack, I overtook Charles, and the first few laps didn't look too bad. I held onto George for a while, then the rear tires dropped in every set. Somehow it was very difficult to maintain balance; we couldn't compete with anyone today.”
Ferrari also had to contend with power unit overheating during periods stuck in traffic, which limited Hamilton's engine performance. Team principal Fred Vasseur, explaining the extent of the problem, recalled the successful example from Barcelona: “The goal was to stay in clean air. We achieved that in Barcelona and spent eighty percent of the race in clean air. This weekend, however, that was not the case at all.”
Leclerc admitted he couldn't get a clear picture of the car.
Leclerc, despite delivering a qualitatively satisfying performance, couldn't finish higher than eighth in the race. The driver particularly emphasized the complete lack of rear grip: “Overall, there was incredibly low grip. We couldn't keep the tire and the car in the right window; rear grip was especially lacking. I was quite happy with the car yesterday, but today it wasn't in the right direction.”
Leclerc also honestly shared that he still hasn't figured out why he hasn't been able to get the desired performance from the SF-26 on Saturdays or Sundays in recent weeks: ’I’ve worked very hard in recent weeks because there was always something or other that made things difficult for me. This probably means I don’t have a clear picture of what I want from this car; I need to figure that out. On Saturday, with low fuel, the front was quite strong and I like that. In the race, the front remained strong but there was no grip at all at the rear; finding that balance is particularly difficult in this car.“
Vasseur: 'We pushed too hard in the early laps'‘
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur stated that both drivers pushed their tires too hard in the opening laps to compete with faster cars, and paid the price at the end of the race: “In this situation, everyone is pushing to the limit. If you don’t have pace, you push, you take risks in strategy; when it doesn’t work, you pay the price in the end. That’s what happened today. We didn’t have the pace to compete with Mercedes and Max, we pushed too hard in the first few laps, we had to change strategy and everything went wrong. But it’s a good lesson.”
George Russell won the Austrian Grand Prix, with Verstappen finishing second and Piastri fourth. This result puts Ferrari's position in the Constructors' Championship into question, and both drivers will continue to work on refining the SF-26's race setup in preparation for the upcoming races.