Appearing as a Sky Sports Formula 1 pundit for the first time this season, Nico Rosberg seemed concerned about Lewis Hamilton as his former Mercedes team-mate struggled with his Ferrari
Lewis Hamilton was left with “the worst car” on track during Friday practice at the Spanish Grand Prix. That was the view of Nico Rosberg who, as he watched his former team-mate struggle in his Ferrari, said he felt sorry for the seven-time Formula 1 champion.
The second hour-long practice run of the day was particularly tough for Hamilton. He finished it way down the timesheets in 11th place and, during the session, told race engineer Riccardo Adami over the radio that his car was “undriveable”.
Rosberg, in his capacity as a Sky Sports pundit, was trackside during the session and noticed how difficult the Ferrari was to drive, even in the hands of the most decorated racer in F1 history. Commenting on a replay after the session, the German said: “If we can come to the worst car – as I mentioned out on track – is the Ferrari.
“Oh my goodness, poor Lewis Hamilton. That car is a handful. It has the biggest understeer, and it has the biggest snap oversteer. [Charles] Leclerc was driving through [turn five], here comes Lewis now, a lot of understeer there, then you can start to see the movement on the steering wheel.
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“Turn seven, there you go, even on the entry already, I mean the rear is just so loose and snappy, so even on the entry, Lewis had to fully steer out again to avoid binning. So, I really feel for him at the moment.”
Hamilton’s team-mate Leclerc said when previewing the Spanish GP that he was unsure if Ferrari’s strong form in Monaco last weekend would carry over in Barcelona. And the Brit alluded to that as he reflected on what had been a difficult day behind the wheel.
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He said: “You have a weekend in Monaco where all of a sudden the car feels great, honestly I thought the car was going to be good today. It wasn’t too bad in [first practice], but in FP2 it was quite a lot worse. So, naturally, that’s frustrating for everyone.
But he did end his media pen interview with an optimistic outlook as he revealed: “We had some problem which meant we were losing some downforce so, hopefully, with that fixed for tomorrow we’ll be in a better place.”
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Team principal Frederic Vasseur was quick to play down Hamilton’s radio comments while in the car as he told Sky: “We had very good pace this morning, we struggled a bit more in the afternoon. We had, I think, a decent lap with Charles before the mistake at turn seven, he was [finding time].
“But the target is to put a lap together and not [just] do some good corners. Then, we struggled a bit more at the beginning of each stint on the long stint. I think it was true for us, but [also] true for a couple of other cars. The track was very dirty with a lot of marbles, as soon as you were out of the [racing] line and it was quite difficult to recover.”
