“Overall, it wasn’t the weekend we were aiming for and there are a few areas we need to look into. Throughout the race, we struggled to get the tyres consistently into the right operating window, which made it difficult to extract the performance we wanted,” Hamilton said, as reported by Voice Online. The British driver noted that the team will comb through the data, particularly regarding energy management, before Formula One heads to Sepang for the Malaysian round.
Struggling to Switch On Tyres
For Hamilton, the core frustration in Baku stemmed from an inability to generate adequate working temperatures in his rubber. The veteran driver started on the soft compound but quickly lost ground during the opening exchanges, dropping behind Max Verstappen before engaging in a tense midfield scrap with McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Although Hamilton eventually found a way past Norris to regain sixth, Ferrari’s overall lack of straight-line speed on Baku’s long full-throttle sections prevented him from threatening the leading group. Speaking to GPblog, a visibly tetchy Hamilton flatly rejected suggestions that Ferrari had slipped to fourth in the 2026 constructor pecking order, cutting off a reporter by asking, “Why would I agree with that?” He reiterated that he simply could not grasp why the car failed to switch on its tyres across the weekend.
Vasseur Acknowledges Deficit
Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur offered a candid assessment of the Scuderia’s performance, pointing out that despite Charles Leclerc capturing a promising second place on the starting grid, the Italian constructor lacked the race-trim pace of its rivals.
“We knew before coming to Baku that this could be a difficult weekend for us, particularly because of our expected performance deficit on the long straights. Of course, starting from P2 with Charles, we wanted a better result. Our single-lap pace was good yesterday, but today we were missing a couple of tenths per lap compared to our competitors, which was too much,” Vasseur explained. Leclerc ultimately converted his front-row start into a solid fourth-place finish, helping Ferrari extend its advantage over McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship despite the latter’s chaotic afternoon, which saw Norris retire following a multi-car collision.
With the championship moving rapidly to Malaysia for the October 2–4 race weekend, Hamilton and Ferrari face a tight turnaround to diagnose their tyre operational hurdles and rediscover the competitive edge needed to challenge at the front.