Lewis Hamilton has firmly rejected the concept Ferrari’s smaller turbo is yielding stronger ends in the Mexico Metropolis Grand Prix weekend.
Coming into the weekend, it was anticipated that the 2026-spec energy models can be given their biggest take a look at to date, owing to Mexico Metropolis being 2,285m above sea degree – the place air density is 25% decrease than at sea degree.
This implies the engines, and particularly the turbochargers, should work tougher to pressure air into the engine, with the phenomenon of turbo lag anticipated to be prevalent – this being the delay between energy demand and the turbo spooling up sufficient to supply the requested energy.
For 2026, that is set to be a tougher problem for the turbo because the MGU-H, which helped in eliminating turbo lag, has been faraway from the facility models.
For the Ferrari-powered vehicles on the grid, this was anticipated to be a bonus, with the turbo on the Ferrari unit smaller than that of rival engines, which means the lag is, in concept, shortened.
Nonetheless, following a Friday the place team-mate Charles Leclerc topped each classes, and Hamilton was fourth in FP1 earlier than an engine gremlin struck in FP2, Hamilton rejected the thought.
“I do not actually agree on the turbo factor,” Hamilton defined.
“In the event you have a look at the speeds of the Mercedes and the Purple Bull, they’re nonetheless large. They’re nonetheless faster on the finish of the straights. Like they’re at each race. So the turbo is simply not making a distinction.
“It is nonetheless pulling extra on the finish of the straights, so I believe we’re nonetheless shedding couple of tenths, two or three tenths, however the automobile is behaving rather well basically. Our automobile is working nicely at tracks like this.
“I believe the automobile feels prefer it’s able to competing in qualifying. However once more, as I mentioned, I do not know what it’s they’re able to do in qualifying. Everybody appears to take a step. I do not know if we are able to eke out somewhat bit extra efficiency.”
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Hamilton on Ferrari engine problem
Turning to his stoppage mid-way by FP2, Hamilton defined that he was at nighttime about the reason for the difficulty – however that his machine was feeling robust in his arms.
“They informed me to cease. They noticed some form of downside, however it felt actually good up till then,” he mentioned.
“The automobile was feeling nice. I believe we did job, made good setup adjustments, and the automobile was in place.
“My center sector was robust, however even on my lap, we have been shedding energy in a number of locations.
“I believe I misplaced three-tenths. However [the bottom line] is that we have got automobile this weekend, so it’s a disgrace to have misplaced this session.”
