Lewis Hamilton takes a closer look at the current state of affairs at his team Ferrari. Although the Scuderia is still behind both Mercedes and Red Bull in terms of the power unit, the Italian team does have an important advantage: the reliability of the SF-26. “And it can take months to implement reliability adjustments,” Hamilton explains.
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With Charles Leclerc’s victory at Silverstone, Ferrari has secured its second win of the season. The Monegasque’s winning streak followed the engine upgrades that the Scuderia brought to the Austrian GP, one race earlier. However, the work on the power unit for Ferrari is certainly not done, as the engines of both Mercedes and Red Bull still have an advantage on the long straights.
“Regarding the engine, the driver can’t really do much,” Lewis Hamilton explained to various media. “It’s the guys in the factory who discover what adjustments are needed to fully exploit the engine’s potential. As drivers, we discuss every weekend what we notice in terms of driving behavior. From the moment we press the accelerator to shifting, the gear ratios, and the things that need to be adjusted. So we push for adjustments, or at least point them out to the team, so they can test them on the simulator and see if we can gain time with them.”
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Important advantage for Ferrari
On the other hand, the reliability of the SF-26 is ‘great’ according to Hamilton. The car has completed more kilometers in races this season than those of the competition, with Hamilton being the only driver this year to have completed every race lap. “Sometimes it seems like there is too little battery power at the end of the straight, because you see that compared to Mercedes and Red Bull, and then you start talking about it.”
“But you have to understand that it takes months to design and implement adjustments to ensure reliability,” Hamilton sees the advantages for Ferrari. “And the most amazing thing is that the team has built a reliable car and a reliable engine, and now we can build further on that, thanks to the regulation change.”
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