– In Monaco qualifying, Lewis Hamilton struggled with the balance of his car. The seven-time world champion described after the session that he lacked confidence in the car compared to the previous day.
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“I don’t think we made any mistakes with the set-up,” Hamilton explained. “These were the smallest changes, maybe a millimeter here and there, really tiny adjustments.”
“But we need to look at what changed. Because the car felt completely different and for some reason had no grip on the rear axle. Yet I had a good balance throughout the weekend.”
To help Hamilton feel a little more comfortable with the rear of his SF-26, the front wing’s angle of attack was lowered slightly during the session.
Although the most successful Formula 1 driver of all time was happier with it, the 41-year-old still couldn’t match Kimi Antonelli’s best time or Max Verstappen’s lap.
“To go faster, we basically needed more front-end grip,” said Hamilton. “But in qualifying, I had a lot of front-end grip and for some reason had to lower my front wing by ten steps.”
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“After that, the car was a bit better to drive for my best lap in Q3, but I would have needed that balance in Q1 to build on it.”
In summary, Hamilton emphasized: “In the end, it’s about confidence, and I didn’t have that. It was completely gone from Q1, and I then tried to get whatever I could out of it.”
Nevertheless, the Ferrari driver is not necessarily dissatisfied with third position and says: “I feel quite comfortable with the car right now, I’m in a very good position within the team and I can see that there’s still pretty good pace in me. I’m very happy about that.”
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All in all, Hamilton can’t complain. After all, despite his problems, he is ahead of his teammate Charles Leclerc on the grid. The latter struggled with his brakes during qualifying and threw the car into the barrier on the decisive lap.
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