Lewis Hamilton admits rear-end issues held back Ferrari progress as no safety car killed strategy

Lewis Hamilton blamed a lack of safety car and ongoing rear-end issues for his underwhelming finish at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton has reflected on his disappointing Japanese Grand Prix race following his seventh place finish, highlighting the lack of a safety car as the factor that killed his strategy. Pointing to issues on his Ferrari, the seven-time champion is looking forward to the team fixing the issues they've now managed to identify.

Despite making up one position from his P8 start, the Briton had a challenging race at Suzuka.

"I was maximum today. I didn't have anything else in the car," Hamilton said following the race. "Had underperformance happening at the rear of the car this weekend. And obviously, qualifying position is key."

Running the car higher than the Scuderia would like after a disqualification in China, the car isn't running with the team's desired setup, affecting its aerodynamics. What didn't help was the lack of a safety car during the Suzuka campaign - something the Italian team was counting on for their new driver.

"There was no safety car, so it didn't really make much difference," Hamilton said. "I think the medium was definitely better for the start of the race, especially in these cool conditions."

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls Team

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Passing Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar, Hamilton was one of few drivers to overtake this Sunday.

"Yeah, I'm very happy I moved forward. I'm really hoping in the next race we’ll see, hopefully, some positive changes. Through the first three races, there's been a bit of a deficit between both sides of the garage on the car.

"So, on my side, something’s underperforming, so it's good to know.

"I mean, with what I had, that's the best result I could get."

His assessment of Ferrari's pace is clear:

"I think we're probably the fourth-fastest, clearly, at the moment. I think we are a little bit off the other guys in terms of performance - downforce level-wise - so we've got some work to do to close the gap.

"We will slowly progress the car. It’ll be interesting to see when people get upgrades for the season.

"We’ve got a lot of work to be able to close the gap to the top cars," he elaborated. "The top guys probably have three or four-tenths on us, so we’ve got a lot of work to bring upgrades for that."

When are upgrades expected for the Scuderia machines?

"They don’t know," Hamilton admitted.