Ferrari ‘P-nowhere’ with Hamilton ‘devastated’

Grand Prix Emilia-Romagna

Imola Date: May 18 Start time for the race: Sunday at 14:00 BST

Ferrari are in “P-nowhere”, according to Charles Leclerc, after he and Lewis Hamilton qualified 11th and 12th for their home Grand Prix Emilia-Romagna.

Leclerc was a second slower than Oscar Piastri’s pole-setting McLaren in front of the team’s adoring “tifosi.”

About 50 miles south of the Ferrari factory in Maranello are the Italian tracks.

It hurts to be so disappointed, especially at home, where the team won such a special grand prix. Whatever track it would have hurt, Leclerc said, “but this hurts even more.”

“Our performance today is beyond me to describe. We can’t say enough about how disappointed we were by this performance at home. We simply aren’t good enough right now.

He said, “I feel gutted, I suppose.” “Because the car generally felt really good,”

“To be honest, I thought the setup and car were perfect. Everything was kind of in place, the brakes were in motion. And we simply can’t move more quickly.

We simply can’t match Max (Verstappen’s Red Bull),” he said. There was no additional grip when we put that new soft (tyre) on at the end because it just didn’t come alive for some reason.

Ferrari’s only podium of the season so far is Hamilton’s, which was won in China in March.

Hamilton leads McLaren in the constructors’ standings, with Leclerc currently fifth and Hamilton seventh, with the team currently fourth overall, 152 points behind.

Ferrari’s season was about to end, but Hamilton said he thought his first year with the team would be “foundation-building year” despite the fact that he had already done so.

Hamilton said, “We have to start adding performance to this car, obviously.” We’re not at par with you, “says. Look at Max’s rear, it just won’t move, to be honest. We can’t match him because he’s turning in Turn Two about 6 to 10 times faster than we do.

Similar to the McLarens, indeed. So we simply need to apply pressure and push forward. I think the guys can put on some acting.

Making necessary adjustments as needed to help the team navigate success over the long term is a foundation-building year.