Lewis Hamilton believes the new floor Ferrari is bringing for its 2025 Formula 1 car at the Bahrain Grand Prix should eradicate the issue that he suggested has created a performance disparity with team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Hamilton caused intrigue in Japan last weekend when he referred to a “deficit” on his car and said “on my side, something is underperforming”, having been behind his team-mate throughout the event.
Though he declined to be more specific either at Suzuka or when pushed for more details of the car difference at Sakhir on Thursday, Hamilton’s comments are suspected to refer to his set-up preference for a lower and stiffer car exacerbating the issues Ferrari is known to be prone to around ride-height sensitivity. As Hamilton’s Chinese GP disqualification showed, Ferrari is at risk of excessive plank wear when it lowers the car to its preferred ride-height when fully laden with fuel for a grand prix distance.
Faced with multiple questions on Thursday about the disparity that he’d suggested, Hamilton always responded with a reference to the new floor Ferrari has for Bahrain - saying “we’ve got new floors this weekend, so it should be gone”.
The Race understands Ferrari will also bring a new rear brake duct and a small new wing on the rear pillar to complement the floor.
The prospect of the upgrades left Hamilton very “excited” heading into his fourth weekend as a Ferrari driver.
“The team has worked really hard, as teams do, they work incredibly hard to be able to bring upgrades. So to have that here at the track we tested at, more knowledge about the car and how to extract more from it - I feel really positive going into the weekend,” he said.
Team-mate Leclerc was more reserved in his expectations for what the upgrades will change for Ferrari.
“I hope that what we are bringing this weekend can help us to at least close this gap a bit more and at least be in the fight with the others,” he said.
Leclerc still feels the lonely fourth place he scored at Suzuka - unable to keep pace with the McLarens or Max Verstappen’s Red Bull - is an accurate reflection of Ferrari’s potential right now.
He declined to go into more detail about a change - most likely to the set-up - he said he’d tried with positive effects at Suzuka, but emphasised that it was more about making sure he could actually maximise what the car had to offer than improving it.
“Whether it will pay off on all tracks, I’m not sure,” he said. “This is what I’m trying to see and confirm on a weekend like this, which on paper is going to be trickier to make it work.
“But if that works here then I’m confident it is the direction I can take for the rest of the year. And for my driving style it’s been positive.
“It doesn’t mean that we are changing the potential of the car. But it helps me to maximise the car’s potential more often than not. So that was a positive.”
