Lewis Hamilton says he is “figuring out” his Ferrari after a difficult Friday of running at the Japanese Grand Prix, but believes he has a “north star” to guide setup changes ahead of qualifying.
Hamilton was around eight tenths off the pace set by Oscar Piastri in second practice and struggled with oversteer through the day at Suzuka, an issue shared by team-mate Charles Leclerc. Late in the session, during long-run running, Hamilton told his engineers he had “no confidence” in the car, but afterwards sounded more positive about finding improvements before Saturday’s 6am qualifying (live on Sky Sports).
“Interestingly it’s something in how this car is set up. There are some similarities to what I felt last year, so we are working on that,” he said. “I’m confident overnight we can find something and get it into a better place. It’s an awesome circuit but you need to be able to sit in the rear and be comfortable [that] it will stay with you and today I had the snaps. Just can’t seem to match the other guys. We will do a deeper dive tonight, get some interesting readings from the simulator. I feel I’ve got a bit of a north star, it’s just how we get there, so I’m going to try to figure that out.”
Russell ‘surprised’ by McLaren pace
Championship leader George Russell ended FP2 two tenths behind Piastri as he looks to return to the top step after losing out to team-mate Kimi Antonelli in China. Russell, who leads Antonelli by four points in the standings, said Mercedes have more performance to extract but were impressed by McLaren’s speed.
“McLaren were pretty fast. A little bit of a surprise. Still some improvements we need to do, so a bit of work to do tonight,” Russell said. “Lando had a disrupted day but Oscar was on it from the first lap out of the box. We have got some more to give and things were not quite optimised, especially on my side with the energy management.”
Piastri added that while competitors such as Mercedes are strong, McLaren’s focus remains on improving their own performance and building momentum from Friday. The session was not trouble-free for McLaren, however, as Lando Norris suffered a hydraulics leak that cost him around 20 minutes and deprived him of a final long run. Norris described himself as being on the “back foot” and said the lack of laps left him short of data.
“A pretty bad day from our side, just not a lot of laps. Not the way you want things to go at the minute especially because you’re just learning with every lap you can still do and I’m lacking a lot of laps,” said Norris. “Not the best start but got a night off to look at things and try and fix some things for tomorrow.”
Verstappen expecting ‘no miracles’
Red Bull continued to struggle, with Max Verstappen 10th and about 1.4 seconds off the top time, suggesting a fight just to reach Q3 at Suzuka. The team brought new sidepods, floor and engine cover to the event, but the upgrades did not immediately translate into better balance or grip.
“Just lacking balance and grip – two opposites from FP1 to FP2. Both of them not very good,” Verstappen said. “From our side, a lot of work to be done to understand why we are having these kind of big problems at the moment. Not a good day. You try to crack one thing, then get another one [problem] but never find a good balance. It’s very difficult to solve, so I don’t expect miracles overnight. We just need to understand our issues a bit more – where they are coming from.”
Sky Sports F1 Japanese GP schedule
Saturday March 28
– 2.15am: Japanese GP Practice Three (session starts at 2.30am)*
– 5am: Japanese GP Qualifying build-up*
– 6am: JAPANESE GP QUALIFYING*
– 8am: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook*
Sunday March 29
– 4.30am: Japanese GP build-up – Grand Prix Sunday*
– 6am: THE JAPANESE GRAND PRIX*
– 8am: Japanese GP reaction – Chequered Flag*
– 9am: Ted’s Notebook*
*Also live on Sky Sports Main Event
Formula 1 heads to the iconic Suzuka Circuit for the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW for viewers without a Sky subscription.