Lewis Hamilton urges Ferrari to look at Mercedes as pitlane procedures become sticking point

Lewis Hamilton says he’ll hold background talks with Ferrari to fix pitlane procedures after tyre-temperature losses

Lewis Hamilton has said that he will have background conversations with the Ferrari team following a weekend that has so far yielded disorganised processes from the outfit.

After qualifying sixth for the Singapore Grand Prix, Hamilton is partly blaming the team's procedures around pitlane starts and the resulting drops in tyre temperatures.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Hamilton said that while he felt competitive, poor Ferrari processes let him down.

"I've enjoyed it. I felt on it all weekend, I felt good in the car. We saw Q1 I felt really strong and thought we would be fighting for the top positions.

"Just the way the plan goes and where we end up waiting in the pitlane, losing tyre temperature, using a tyre on the out-lap then coming in, the temperature effect. All these things add up to not optimising the sessions. We have to do some work to optimise that."

Talking to the media, including Motorsport.com, Hamilton admitted that this issue wasn't just confined to this weekend.

"We are the last in the queue often and then waiting in the queue and losing a lot of temperature in the tyres. And every time we do that, we're falling further and further back. It happens every weekend," he added.

The seven-time world champion had a strong Q1, but as the track evolved and out-laps became more crowded, Ferrari's pitlane position became a sticking point, something he will be bringing up with the team.

"We will talk in the background. Just have to have conversations about it and improve the process. Everyone is working as hard as they can, we just need to look at what the others are doing.

"Mercedes were out first, they didn't lose any tyre temperature and they were at the front. We were waiting, turning the car off at the end of the pitlane and lose five or six degrees, which is hard to get back. In Q3, I had nothing, just lost half a second in performance from the tyres.

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Lionel Ng / LAT Images via Getty Images

"That's frustrating but I will try my best tomorrow."

When asked specifically about the magnitude of such processes, he admitted it was worth several degrees of temperature.

"I don't know whether or not they see it so much. But we're losing so much temperature. And maybe five or six degrees or whatever it is, it's still a lot of temperature. And it's really hard to gain that back in the out-lap without using the tyres so much, which we ultimately do.

"We're just starting the lap. I think the guys that are on pole went out quicker with less waiting in the pitlane. So I think there's an area we can improve on for sure."

Additional reporting by Sam Shephard.