Lewis Hamilton sets Ferrari unlikely target to rescue F1 season

Lewis Hamilton believes Ferrari must follow Red Bull and McLaren in delivering performance from its upgrades, using Max Verstappen as an example.

Both Hamilton and team-mate Charles Leclerc were dumped in Q2 at Imola, a humiliating double exit for Ferrari at its home race, with the SF-25 proving to be a tricky machine to extract performance from. 

Hamilton felt that the race from 12th could be a struggle in the "DRS train" but felt that the underlying pace of the Ferrari was strong, as he explained, where McLaren and Red Bull held a significant advantage.

"This is not a great circuit to race on; it is great to drive a single lap, but overtaking, you get stuck in a DRS train, and there will not be a lot of movement. 

"Strategy-wise, we'll try and pick them off, and I feel like the race pace could be good, but we have made progress this weekend, but it is still not where it needs to be. 

"We need more upgrades; we've got to start adding performance. I mean, look at Max's rear, it just doesn't move, he's doing like 6-10kph more than us at Turn 2, and we can't match that.

"It is the same with McLaren, so we've just got to keep pushing, keep applying pressure, and I believe the guys can find some performance."