Hamilton: Stability will be a decisive factor

      Lewis Hamilton finished third at Silverstone and admitted that he was hoping for more...

      Question: Lewis, this is your 16th podium at Silverstone – an amazing record. How do you assess the race?

      Lewis Hamilton: Not very well. Charles did an excellent job and deserved to win, while I struggled from the very beginning. I had a false start, which is extremely rare in the 380 races I’ve participated in.

      The balance left a lot to be desired. Charles increased the front wing angle compared to qualifying, while my car suffered from oversteer with the differential settings we had. I reduced the angle of attack, resulting in severe understeer at the start of the race – and he just drove away from me.

      Until the middle of the first stint, the car simply refused to turn; I managed to improve the handling a bit by changing the differential settings, but by that time the gap was already huge. And then there was a five-second penalty at the pit stop – it was one thing after another.

      Question: You really very rarely have a false start. What actually happened when the lights went out?

      Lewis Hamilton: My hand moved on its own. I didn’t want that. I didn’t ask it to do that. Sometimes it happens.

      Question: What positive aspects did this weekend leave, in terms of your pace and Ferrari's speed?

      Lewis Hamilton: That’s great. It’s amazing to see the pace we showed this weekend. We definitely didn’t expect that. We had a good weekend and earned a lot of points. Huge thanks to the team!

      Question: Do you regret pitting and changing tires in the last laps? Maybe you should have stayed on track and kept second place?

      Lewis Hamilton: The team asked me to pit. I thought I would keep my position. If they had told me, “You’ll pit and lose your position,” I wouldn’t have done it.

      Question: You are now 32 points behind Kimi. Mercedes has had some misfortunes and reliability issues. Ferrari has no reliability problems. Are you pleased with this fact and how Ferrari is performing in races right now?

      Lewis Hamilton: Very pleased. At the start of the season, we knew we needed to elevate our processes and the quality of our work during race weekends. That’s what we’ve been striving for since last year.

      Every team member contributes greatly and gives their all. The guys in the pits worked hard – and we had great pit stops. Everyone at the base worked diligently to ensure stability, and I believe that will be the deciding factor.

      It’s clear that there are more issues with power units this year than usual, and I don’t know how things are with George’s and Kimi’s batteries, but at some point, I believe a penalty should follow, as they can only be changed twice this year or something like that.

      Our key task is to earn the maximum number of points while performing at the limit of our capabilities, even if we can’t win.

      Question: Do you feel that in two weeks you will be able to fight for victory in Spa, considering the concerns you had about Ferrari's form before the weekend?

      Lewis Hamilton: We are progressing quickly right now. Before this weekend, the simulator showed that we should start with completely different settings, but we decided to stick with the direction we usually go with the engineers. Charles started with the baseline settings, but in the end, the direction I chose turned out to be correct, and he preferred it too.

      It’s nice to see that the direction I insisted on is bearing fruit. We need to keep making changes and not slow down, continue to implement innovations. Spa also has long straights, but ultimately, I need to perform better than I did this weekend.