{"id":225740,"date":"2025-06-30T04:40:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T04:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/225740\/"},"modified":"2025-06-30T04:40:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T04:40:17","slug":"lewis-hamilton-reveals-key-struggle-after-promising-austrian-gp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/225740\/","title":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton reveals key struggle after promising Austrian GP"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lewis Hamilton has revealed he was forced to nurse braking issues in his Ferrari throughout much of the Austrian Grand Prix.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hamilton finished fourth behind McLaren race winner Lando Norris, with Oscar Piastri second and Charles Leclerc the first Ferrari to the flag in third.<\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton battled brake issues throughout Austrian GP<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher<\/p>\n

Hamilton took the flag more than nine seconds adrift of his counterpart at the end of the 70-lap race, maintaining the position he\u2019d qualified in.<\/p>\n

To do so, he was forced to go wheel-to-wheel with George Russell in the opening stages to hold on to the position as his former Mercedes team-mate attacked.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat start, and had a great battle with George from Turn 1 all the way through to Turn 6, and managed to hold on to the outside, which is awesome,\u201d Hamilton told media, including PlanetF1.com.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter that, the car didn\u2019t feel too bad. I was able to hold on for a second, but then I was really struggling with the balance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have brake issues,\u201d he added, \u201cso having to manage these brakes really early on, which is losing, definitely, some time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something I\u2019m really pushing to get fixed, because that\u2019s not great.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, just balance. I was really struggling just with balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferrari introduced an upgraded floor at the Austrian Grand Prix, with revised fences, edge, and body.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an update the team said is intended to deliver \u201can overall load gain across the car operating envelope,\u201d according to the FIA car presentation submissions list.<\/p>\n

In reality, Hamilton suggested it added nothing in terms of time over the course of the race, but had other benefits.<\/p>\n

More reaction to the Austrian Grand Prix<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Austrian GP: Norris wins as Verstappen eliminated in Mercedes clash<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0F1 points all-time rankings: Where do Hamilton, Verstappen and Alonso feature?<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe upgrade was quite small, so we didn\u2019t really know\u2026 they didn\u2019t even mention any time, because it was that small,\u201d the seven-time champion said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps there was a bigger result from putting the floor on, so that\u2019s a real positive; really great to see the team bringing the upgrade and moving us forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing the second fastest [team] this weekend, getting fourth is a real positive, so there\u2019s lots of good things to take from the weekend and there\u2019s lots of areas to focus on.\u201d<\/p>\n

A different approach at the Red Bull Ring saw Hamilton adopt a car set-up closer to team-mate Leclerc\u2019s, netting broadly positive results.<\/p>\n

Though he still finished behind the Monegasque driver, the 40-year-old felt he made gains as he continues to get to grips with the nuances of his Ferrari.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe drives a massively oversteering car,\u201d Hamilton explained of Leclerc\u2019s driving style.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomehow he slides the rears and doesn\u2019t have degradation. When I slide the rears, I get massive degradation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose it took Carlos [Sainz] a couple of years to get used to. I don\u2019t want to do that! I think I\u2019m improving\u2026 I was a lot closer in quali, didn\u2019t have the race pace.\u201d<\/p>\n

With third and fourth for Ferrari in the Austrian GP, the Scuderia now sits second in the Constructors\u2019 Championship with 210 points, one more than Mercedes and 48 clear of third-best Red Bull.<\/p>\n

McLaren remains the runaway leaders with 417 points to top the standings after 11 races.<\/p>\n

Hamilton, meanwhile, holds on to sixth in the Drivers\u2019 Championship, the 12 points from Sunday\u2019s result moving his tally on to 91.<\/p>\n

Read more:\u00a0Kimi Antonelli punishment confirmed after Max Verstappen collision<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton has revealed he was forced to nurse braking issues in his Ferrari throughout much of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[997,13,225,998,12,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-225740","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-ferrari","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-home-page","11":"tag-lewis-hamilton","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114770478586540096","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}