Friday at the Hungaroring was a mixed bag for Ferrari, with Leclerc inside the top 3 and Hamilton inside the top 6 in both practice sessions.
Lewis Hamilton has a strong racing record in Budapest, but the 7-time world champion has struggled with the balance of his Ferrari so far this weekend. Speaking to the media after FP2, he said that his experience on Friday felt different to the other times he has raced here.
“Today was not a good day. For me, a big, big struggle with the balance of the car. And yeah, a lot different to the previous years I’ve been here.
“We tried two different things, we tried rectifying some of the balance problems we had in FP1. We changed the car for FP2 and it’s just inconsistent. Very, very inconsistent balance from corner to corner.
“So you can’t just say it’s understeer, you can’t just say it’s oversteer. It’s just far from being on rails and very, very out of balance. But I think it’s probably something to do with maybe tyre temperatures or something. So we’re going to try and figure that out for tomorrow.”
Not much hope for Qualifying
Hamilton believes he is too far off the pace to fight for second row in Qualifying on Saturday. However, teammate Leclerc has seemed more comfortable in the car.
“I mean, Charles has been quick today, so he’s been generally happy with the car. For me, I’m quite far off, so I highly doubt it.”
Leclerc’s view
The Monegasque driver was more optimistic in his media interviews. Though he admits that they are far from the McLarens, but overall the feeling has been good for him so far.
“For now, it looks like it’s our position. And realistically, I think it’s going to be very tough to go and beat the McLaren tomorrow. They seem to be a step forward, but never say never.
“I mean, the feeling with the car has been pretty positive so far. We’ve got to do some steps more in the right direction for tomorrow. But for now, the feeling is good.”
Leclerc isn’t ruling out the competition in Hungary, stating that conditions can change between Friday and Saturday, but he believes Ferrari to be in the middle of the pack.
“For now, we are [ahead of their competitors], but we can never rule them out. I mean, it’s always very variable from Friday to Saturday. So I think we’ll have to see tomorrow when we come to the track and see with the new conditions whether the pecking order is the same.
“But for now, I would say we are a bit in the middle of everyone, behind McLaren and ahead of the rest. So yeah, let’s see tomorrow. In qualifying, I hope we can do something better than P3.”
