Ferrari has identified a problem with its car which has been present since the start of the season, Lewis Hamilton revealed after the Japanese Grand Prix.
Hamilton raced from eighth to seventh at Suzuka while team mate Charles Leclerc finished third. The team ended last year in more competitive shape than it has started the new season.
Ferrari believes it has identified a fault on the car which has contributed to their poor form, said Hamilton.
I think I did the best I could today,” he told Sky. “[I was], generally lacking performance compared to all the cars that are up ahead of me, particularly Mercedes and McLaren and obviously the Red Bull.
“We’ve found something on the car that’s been underperforming for the last three races. So I’m really hoping when that’s fixed I’ll start getting a bit better results.
“But I’m losing just over a tenth [of a second] a lap with this issue we have. So I’m hoping in the next race it’s fixed.
Hamilton indicated the team doesn’t fully understand the cause of the problem but hopes to remedy it with a new part which it will introduce soon.
“They’re aware of it and they don’t know why [it’s happening],” he said. “So, as I said, when the new component comes, hopefully it’ll be gone and it’ll be the same across cars.
“Considering that, I’m relatively happy with the race pace that I did have, given what I had. But otherwise, good performance from the team. Myself and Riccardo I think did a really good job, the engineers and mechanics also did a great job.”
However Hamilton said he also needs to improve his performance in qualifying. “Clearly it’s really important to get a good qualifying and I’m not extracting the best out of the tyres so that’s something I’ll work on.”
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