Lewis Hamilton battling fundamental Ferrari issues after Japan shocker

Lewis Hamilton is still battling the after-effects of his China disqualification as he struggled in Japanese Grand Prix qualifying.

Lewis Hamilton has explained how the performance of Ferrari’s F1 car is being hampered in Japan as a result of his China disqualification.

Hamilton’s sixth-place was expunged from the record books in Shanghai after his SF-25 was found to have worn the skid-block more than the rules allow, with Ferrari having to raise the ride height at Suzuka to prevent the block from hitting the track and wearing itself out.

By the nature of the ground-effects cars, a higher ride-height costs performance with Hamilton labouring to eighth place on the grid for the Japanese GP, his worst qualifying at Suzuka since ninth for McLaren in 2012.

The seven-time world champion also explained how he was battling against understeer throughout the session, as team-mate Charles Leclerc banked fourth on the grid, some 0.411s faster.

“It is obviously not good enough from my side, to qualify eighth, but I was happy to get into Q3 and it was a really tight battle out there, I just didn’t get great laps in Q3,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1. 

“Yes, we are higher than what we would like, but I don’t know if everyone is in the same boat in that respect, but particularly after the last race, we’re a bit higher than we would want to be, that’s usually the knock-on effect from the weekend like we had before.

“Charles did an amazing job. We went in different set-up directions, and for me, I just had a lot of understeer that I could not dial out throughout qualifying.”

With rain forecast for race day, Hamilton added that “if you have a qualifying like I’ve just had, you hope for rain.”

Lewis Hamilton incident triggers grid drop for Carlos Sainz at Japanese GP

Carlos Sainz has been given a three-place grid penalty due to an incident with Lewis Hamilton in qualifying at Suzuka,

An incident between Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton during qualifying earned the attention of the Japanese Grand Prix stewards.

A blocking incident during Q2 resulted in the FIA stewards calling upon Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton to visit them for a chat before giving the Williams driver a three-place grid penalty.

Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton summoned before the stewards

Hamilton was embarking upon a flying lap late in Q2 when he encountered a slow-moving Sainz through the first two corners, forcing the Ferrari driver to back off. Hamilton still made it through into Q3 despite the block.

With the incident seemingly a slam-dunk case of impeding on Sainz’s part, the stewards called upon both drivers to explain the incident and determine whether a punishment was warranted.

The summons was issued after qualifying, with both called after an “Alleged breach of Article 37.5 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations – Car 55 [Sainz] allegedly impeding Car 44 [Hamilton] in Turn 1 at 15:47.”

Article 37.5 reads, “Any driver taking part in any free practice session, the qualifying session or the sprint qualifying session who, in the opinion of the stewards, stops unnecessarily on the circuit or unnecessarily impedes another driver shall be subject to the penalties referred to in Article 37.4.”

Sainz was heard on team radio questioning his team following the incident, saying, “What happened with Hamilton into Turn 1?” with his race engineer replying to say they’d have a look once Sainz was back in the garage.

After their investigation, the stewards issued Sainz with a three-place grid penalty, confirming that the Williams driver had unnecessarily impeded Hamilton.

“[Sainz] was on an in-lap after having completed a push lap when [Hamilton] was starting its push lap, and [Hamilton] had to move off track to avoid [Sainz] in Turn 1,” the stewards said.

“[Sainz] stated that he did not have any warning from the team, of the approach [Hamilton] on a push lap. He stated that he was caught completely by surprise and, because of the approach speed of Hamilton, and the angle of his car, he could not see [Hamilton] in his mirrors.

“However, notwithstanding the above, the team had ample warning that [Hamilton] was on an out lap whilst [Sainz] was on its push lap. Also, more than 8 seconds elapsed from when it was obvious [Hamilton] was not going into the pits and hence was going to start a push lap, and when [Sainz] could have taken appropriate action if the driver had been warned by the team.

“It is noted that the standard penalty guideline for this offence during Qualifying, irrespective of whether it was the fault of the driver or the team, is a 3 grid position penalty, and therefore the Stewards find that the standard penalty should be applied.”

“I got no warning from the team on this one,” Sainz said after the session and prior to the penalty being applied.

“I think we, as a team, messed up. I overtook so many cars on my push lap, and they were all on in-laps. When I overtook Lewis on my push lap, I probably didn’t believe he was on an in-lap, too.

“Then, suddenly, he opened a lap behind me, and I went into Turn 1, pulling on the car, and he was pushing, and we missed it.

“[He] still made it to Q3, and I got no warning, which sometimes helps in the penalty application, but yeah, we’ll see what happens.”

Sainz’s penalty thus results in him lining up in 16th on the grid, with Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda moving up to 13th and 14th, respectively.