Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc are not the problem at Ferrari as F1 giant falters again

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc are easy targets at Ferrari. Always have been, always will be.

The 41-year-old great Hamilton carries the weight of being a seven-time world champion, now in red, a move which was always going to be judged with impatience as much as excitement. Leclerc, meanwhile, has been Ferrari's prince for far too long, with virtually nothing to show for it.

But Ferrari's real problem is not Hamilton, Leclerc, or some neat driver comparison that can be wrapped up on social media.

It is the car.

More specifically, it is Ferrari's inability to give either driver a consistent enough platform to perform across a full race weekend.

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Ferrari's real issue

The Miami Grand Prix was supposed to offer some kind of clarity.

Ferrari arrived with a raft of upgrades, Hamilton and Leclerc both needed a response, and the team had enough encouraging moments before the race to suggest there was at least something better to come.

Instead, the weekend became another Ferrari balancing act. There were flashes of pace, signs of progress and enough caveats to stop it being written off completely, but not enough consistency to make any of it feel convincing.

Fred Vasseur's own post-race assessment did not read like a team boss trying to pin the outcome on one driver.

"Overall, it was a challenging Sunday on both sides of the garage," Vasseur said. "With Lewis, the race was largely about managing the damage from lap one, which meant dealing with overheating and doing a lot of lift and coast just to bring the car to the finish.

"On Charles’ side, the pace was strong in clean air and we were fighting at the front, but once we dropped into traffic it became more difficult and consistency was the main issue.

"There was a big performance delta between the part when Charles was leading and the later part of the race. It is something we need to look into, because it was a similar picture in yesterday’s Sprint."

That is the story in three sentences. Hamilton was compromised by damage, Leclerc had pace in the right conditions and Ferrari could not keep the performance alive once the race moved away from their ideal window.

Hamilton and Leclerc are symptoms, not the cause

It would be easy to turn Miami into another Hamilton verdict. He has not yet looked like the driver Ferrari fans imagined when the move was announced, and the scrutiny around every session will only grow while the results remain underwhelming.

It would also be easy to focus on Leclerc, whose Ferrari career has so often lived between brilliance and frustration. When he is quick, the question becomes whether Ferrari can back him. When he is not, the question becomes whether Ferrari have seen this all before.

But Vasseur's comments point elsewhere.

Hamilton did not suddenly forget how to drive because the car was overheating after lap-one damage. Leclerc did not suddenly lose his pace because he dropped into traffic. Ferrari did not suddenly become title contenders because the starts were strong and the upgrade package behaved as expected.

This is a team searching for repeatability, and doing it on repeat, every race weekend.

Ferrari upgrades have not solved consistency

Vasseur, naturally, did not dismiss the weekend as a total failure.

"However, there are some positives to take from the weekend: the starts were good and the upgrades worked as expected," he added.

"We know where we need to improve - consistency, managing traffic and extracting the full potential of the package."

That final line is the one Ferrari should be circling - consistency, managing traffic, extracting the full potential of the package.

These are not small details when Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull are all fighting to stretch development gains across complete weekends, not isolated moments in a race.

Ferrari's car can still look quick, and that might be the most frustrating part. The pace is not imaginary and Miami did not prove that the upgrade package was useless. It proved something more awkward, that Ferrari can find performance but they cannot yet hold it firmly enough for Hamilton and Leclerc to build a race around it.

Ferrari need answers quickly

Hamilton and Leclerc will always take the attention because drivers are easier to judge than balance windows, overheating, dirty air or tyre deg.

But Ferrari's Miami debrief should not be about choosing which driver to blame.

Vasseur has already told them what the problem is. The car is too conditional, too dependent on circumstance and not yet robust enough when the race stops being clean.

Hamilton and Leclerc are not Ferrari's biggest issue, their team still cannot give them a package which behaves the same way for long enough to build a coherent race weekend strategy. That has to change in Canada.

They are not the problem, just give them the car.

READ MORE: Lewis Hamilton admits being in Ferrari 'no-man's land' after Miami Grand Prix

Written by

Matthew Hobkinson - Lead Editor

After four years working for a Lloyd's of London insurance syndicate, lockdown gave Matt the chance to chase a career in sports journalism - he hasn't looked back. Matt has found a home here at GPFans where he can showcase the weird and wonderful world of F1 to the millions of fans around the world who are just as passionate as he is about the best sport in the world.

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