Lewis Hamilton starts the very last Dutch GP much more optimistically than the sprint race a day earlier. The seven-time world champion still began the final race weekend in the Dutch dunes with ‘so much confidence’, but saw this disappear like snow in the sun due to a wrong adjustment to the SF-26. During qualifying, however, the balance was fine: “It’s really a difference of night and day,” Hamilton explains.
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Lewis Hamilton was still dissatisfied after the sprint race. Ferrari had made a small adjustment to the SF-26 for the sprint qualifying, but according to Hamilton, that sent the car ‘the other way’. As a result, the seven-time world champion could do no better than seventh place. A few hours and a qualifying session later, he stands much more satisfied in front of the microphone.
“I’m so much happier with the car,” he says to the media at Zandvoort. “It’s already night and day. I mean, we changed a lot of things, and although it doesn’t look so drastic at first glance, the difference it makes in the car is incredible. And the tricky part is: I still started FP1 with a lot of confidence, but completely lost that during the sprint qualifying, and throughout the entire sprint race I had no confidence in the balance…”
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‘At the start of qualifying the car was fine again’
The fear of a repeat of this disappointment was therefore great for Hamilton ahead of qualifying on Saturday. “The car kept sliding away from me, and when I started qualifying, the car was suddenly fine, so at least the balance was there,” he says relieved. “So I drove lap after lap, and I think we probably could have done better, but in the end the tires were the problem for us, I think.”
The Brit starts fifth in the last Dutch GP. A race in which Hamilton has more confidence than in the shortened version a day earlier. “I’m more optimistic about Sunday with the balance I have now. Hopefully we can make progress and challenge the guys ahead of us.”
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