Lewis Hamilton has urged Ferrari to study rivals’ front wings because he believes both Mercedes and Red Bull have found a performance advantage. Kimi Antonelli overcame a fierce battle with Lando Norris to clinch a third successive victory and extend his title lead as the Miami Grand Prix survived the weather on Sunday.
Hamilton crossed the line in seventh place but was later bumped up to sixth after fellow Ferrari star Charles Leclerc was hit with a 20-second time penalty. Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari all made significant upgrades to their cars ahead of the Miami Grand Prix.
Ferrari brought 11 new parts to the Miami Autodrome, including a new front wing endplate, while at the rear of the car was the revised ‘Macarena’ wing.
While one of Red Bull’s updates included a new front wing, with all three front wing elements and the endplate altered to increase the load or improve flow stability, McLaren changed the MCL40’s front wing endplates as part of its next-level front wing package.
And asked about Ferrari’s rivals’ updates, Hamilton said: “Mercedes did bring improvements, just not the same as others.
“They had like two and we had, I don’t know, eight or something. Their package is coming next race. The team [Ferrari] worked incredibly hard to run those components and it has taken a step, but the others have also taken a step.
“I heard McLaren brought a step, but that it was worth much more than they anticipated. That’s not how we’ve experienced ours. So definitely they’re doing something different.
“Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull are doing something different with the front wing to us. So we need to look into that to see whether or not there’s something we can improve on.”
And when asked about his front wing claim and how it would affect Straight Line Mode, Hamilton replied: “Just look at everyone else’s wing and look at ours, you’ll see it looks different.
“I don’t know if that’s necessarily the whole thing, but I wonder what that’s doing, because others seem to have it and they improved.”