Lewis Hamilton explains state of mind after ‘disastrous’ Australian GP as Leclerc warns Ferrari must not ‘overreact’

Lewis Hamilton has given an insight into how he is approaching this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix after what he branded a “disastrous” race on his Ferrari debut in Australia, while team mate Charles Leclerc has cautioned that the team must “not overreact” to their troubles last time out.

Despite being touted by many as one of the favourites off the back of pre-season testing in Bahrain, the Scuderia appeared to be lacking pace in comparison to some of their rivals at the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit.

Qualifying saw Leclerc and Hamilton line up in P7 and P8 respectively, while a backfired strategy and general pace struggles in Sunday’s race brought Leclerc home in eighth and Hamilton in 10th place.

Asked about his state of mind following the weekend in Melbourne, Hamilton sounded an optimistic note as he responded: “It has been only one race. Of course, even for me, that’s not the result that I was hoping for. In pure performance, to be where we were was not spectacular.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 16: Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain driving the (44) Scuderia Ferrari — Hamilton took home one point in P10 on his debut for Ferrari in Australia

“I don’t think the car is necessarily at that pace, we just didn’t extract it all. And the race on Sunday was disastrous. It was painful for all of us.

“You can’t let one race throw you off. You can’t quit after one race or one loss. We come back fighting – that’s what we do best. So coming here this weekend, we’re optimistic, we’ve got our heads high, we’ve got to continue to push. We’ve got a good car and a good package.

“There are a thousand different things impacting race weekends and the thing is, we could have made a call on the strategy last weekend. If I’d come in two laps before and we finished higher up, it would be a different discussion, but we still were lacking performance. It’s just about having perspective.

“Rome wasn’t built in one day, so we’re just going to try to build on the foundations from testing. We learnt a huge amount last weekend and it’s what we do with that loss, it’s how we turn up weekend in weekend out with our heads high and continue to push. It’s not how you fall, it’s how you get back up.”

The Shanghai International Circuit has been a successful track for Hamilton over the years, with the seven-time World Champion holding a record six victories at the venue from his first in 2008 through to his most recent in 2019.

In terms of what might be possible for him this weekend, Hamilton reflected: “I don’t know. I think we’re going to work on set-up, just trying to extract more from the car. There’s definitely a huge amount of learnings from last weekend about where the car likes to work and not.

“Each track I go to, I’m having to ask them about how they were last year here, what were their problems over previous years, because this car and its characteristics will be different to what I’ve experienced in previous years. I’m trying to anticipate that, trying to get the set-up as close to perfect as possible before I get out.”

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 16: Charles Leclerc of Monaco and Scuderia Ferrari looks on prior to — Leclerc has warned that Ferrari must "not overreact" to their difficult weekend in Melbourne

On the other side of the garage, Leclerc is hopeful that Ferrari can take lessons from their weekend in Melbourne and work towards making a step forward for Round 2 on the calendar.

“There are many things that we can learn from the first weekend,” the Monegasque said. “Obviously, many things didn’t go the way that we wanted them to go, but it was only the first race of the season. We’ve learnt many things since then and I’m sure that we will put all of the bits together for the weekend and will make a step forward.

“I still remain convinced that the potential of the car is much better than we saw from the first weekend, but now we need to show that on track this weekend.”

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However, in terms of how far this step could take them – and whether it will be enough to challenge McLaren – Leclerc answered: “It is difficult to know because I think now, every little difference can have a big influence on track, so I think the track layout can have a big influence on if you are fast or not.

“If you look at the last four-five races of last year, it was Mercedes dominating in Las Vegas, us in Mexico, McLaren very fast in Abu Dhabi, and that was basically the same car. At this stage of the season, you don’t have any upgrades.

“I think there are many factors that come into play. We need to stay calm. The first weekend was definitely disappointing and there is a long way to go before getting back to the level of McLaren, but I don’t think we are as far away as what we saw on the first weekend.

“We really need to not overreact, keep working in the direction that we have done in the past months and I’m sure that results will come.”