Bad news for Ferrari as Lewis Hamilton drops his verdict about the car in F1 Japanese GP

Lewis Hamilton has declared that Ferrari is not the fastest car around Suzuka even though the team does have a good baseline for the weekend. The Italian team is coming into the race after a strange weekend in China.

Lewis Hamilton dominated the sprint part of the weekend, where he secured pole position and won it as well. Then, as soon as it transitioned into the Grand Prix part of the weekend, the wheels came off.

Lewis Hamilton could only qualify in the third row, which was a disappointment after the sprint. The race was even worse as the driver was just unable to find any kind of pace. He finished the race in P6 eventually but only to get disqualified from the race.

Coming into the F1 Japanese GP, Ferrari would have been hoping for a more competitive package, but by the looks of it, that's not the case. Talking to Sky Sports, the seven-time world champion declared the same even though the driver was still positive with the foundation that the team had laid. Looking back at the Friday sessions, the driver said:

"It's been a really nice day. This track is awesome. The sessions went well. A bit worrying to see the crash at Turn 1, glad to see he [Doohan] is ok. It's quite gusty, so you get a headwind through The Esses but it felt great. We got through all the programme, we got some performance we need to pick up. We are not the quickest at the moment but I think it's a good baseline."

Lewis Hamilton's teammate gives his take after the first day

Lewis Hamilton's teammate Charles Leclerc was arguably more positive about the prospects as he felt that the car's potential is more than what he has been able to show on the timesheets. The driver was P7 in FP2, with his fastest lap being hindered by traffic while Lewis Hamilton was in P4. Looking back at the day, Leclerc told the aforementioned publication:

"It was a constructive day, we tried many different set-ups throughout the practice sessions and I feel that I learned a lot about our car and how we can extract the most from it in the upcoming races."

He added:

"We didn’t put everything together, with multiple red flags and traffic interrupting FP2, but I think that our performance is better than it is on paper right now. It will be interesting to see how the change in conditions, in particular in terms of the wind direction, will affect tomorrow’s sessions."

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc will be hoping to put together a better challenge for the team this weekend, although we'll have to wait and see what the car is truly capable of in qualifying.