Scuderia Ferrari HP leave the Dutch Grand Prix with a further 31 points, courtesy of nine points from yesterday’s Sprint and 22 today from a fourth place for Lewis Hamilton and a fifth for Charles Leclerc. The cars’ performance when they had clear track ahead, suggests that the cars’ potential could have delivered a better result, but the outcome was largely determined by yesterday’s qualifying, in which Lewis and Charles were unable to do better than the third row. On a circuit where overtaking is notoriously difficult, both SF-26s showed good race pace, always running close to the rivals ahead. Both drivers made up one place from their grid positions and challenged for the podium right until the last lap.
The race. Charles got off the line really well at the first start, gaining two places to move up to fourth while Lewis dropped to 5th. The race was then interrupted by a red flag following Max Verstappen’s accident and, at the restart, the Monegasque lost one place to Oscar Piastri. From that point onwards, the Ferraris spent much of the race in traffic. Charles managed to overtake Piastri on lap 34 with a great move through the sequence of the first three corners, with Lewis following suit one lap later. The two SF-26s then adopted different strategies: Charles switched from Soft to Medium and subsequently to Hard tyres, while Lewis went directly from Soft to Hard, extending his stint to see whether any opportunities arose and, potentially, to try to make it to the chequered flag. A Virtual Safety Car on lap 55 provided an opportunity for both drivers to change tyres while losing half the usual time, so both switched back to Softs, resuming in fourth and fifth places behind Kimi Antonelli, with Lewis ahead of Charles. In the closing stages, the Italian overtook George Russell and Hamilton gradually closed in on the Mercedes, eventually creating the conditions to make his move on lap 70. At precisely that moment, however, a new Virtual Safety Car neutralised the attempt, effectively freezing the positions.
Monza next. The team returns home this evening to begin preparing for the next round of the championship, the Italian Grand Prix, at Monza on 6 September. There, Scuderia Ferrari HP will be able to count on the support of its home fans, with the aim of giving them something to celebrate.
Lewis Hamilton #44
Overall, it was a solid race and despite the qualifying positions, we had good pace today and brought some important points home for the team. I’m really grateful to everyone back at the factory, who continue to push and find small gains through the upgrades we’re bringing to the car. The team did a great job both with the strategy and in the pit lane, and the mechanics once again were excellent. It wasn’t an easy race but we were competitive.
While it was a good race, we know we need to do more to make sure we’re maximising every opportunity to stay in the championship fight. We’ll go away over the next couple of weeks and see what else we can do to make sure we come back from Monza strong and ready.
Charles Leclerc #16
Our pace was strong, and I believed in it until the very end because we weren’t that far off George (Russell). We didn’t really have luck on our side today, as the timing of the Virtual Safety Car was not ideal for our race. On the other hand, we did a good job with tyre management and I enjoyed the overtake on Oscar (Piastri). Our main limitation was probably our starting position, so we have to review and understand where we can improve our qualifying pace.
I’m excited for Monza next. I have really great memories which I will never forget from there, and it’s just a really special place for us, where we meet so many of our tifosi year after year. I hope we can make good memories there again this year.
Fred Vasseur - Team Principal
Our race pace was decent today, but our execution was not perfect. We lost the position to Oscar Piastri with Charles at the second start and also had a slow pit stop, so there are areas in which we need to improve if we want to maximise the result in such a tight field. Today the difference between the tyre compounds was very small, which made the strategy difficult to read, and at one stage we considered going to the end with Lewis before the Virtual Safety Car came out. Overall, I think what we lacked more this weekend was qualifying pace rather than race pace. We will analyse what we could have done better and make sure we execute a cleaner weekend in Monza.
