Lewis Hamilton says Ferrari’s power shortfall is preventing them from rivaling Mercedes, whose dominance continued at the Canadian Grand Prix.
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Hamilton, a seven-time world champion, made the remarks as the FIA prepares to apply its new Additional Development Upgrade Opportunity regulations for the first time. Under the rule, manufacturers whose combustion engines are found to be at a significant disadvantage will be given extra chances to develop them.
Ferrari has previously suggested it expects to qualify for such an upgrade. Hamilton, who finished around 10 seconds behind race winner Andrea Kimi Antonelli in Canada, said the deficit in power units is the main reason Ferrari are struggling to match Mercedes.
“If you take away the power deficit, we’re in the fight with these guys,” Hamilton said. “But unfortunately that’s not the way it is today.
“At the moment I’m thinking, ‘I need more power somehow,’ because I can hold on through the corners and I can’t push the pedal any further. You see them just eke out the straight and you catch them back in the braking zones, then they eke out more on the straight. It’s really hard.”
Hamilton added that even when deploying extra power modes to attempt overtakes, the rivals still pull away once on the straight. “Even when you get the overtake mode, when you get within a second, they still pull away. That shows how much grunt they have, and we’re massively down,” he said.
“But I really hope this new rule gives us the opportunity to improve and find some performance, so we can get back in the fight with them.”
Despite the power gap, Hamilton expects Monaco to be more competitive for Ferrari and Mercedes because the principality’s tight, slow layout reduces the advantage of outright engine power.
“Monaco should be fun,” he said. “That’s the one track where power is not king. It’s about car performance, and I think our car could be really strong there.
“I’m going to focus on arriving with the same energy I had this weekend, study hard with the engineers, and make sure we position the car correctly from the first practice session.”
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