Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finished the Japanese Grand Prix in fourth and seventh place. That might not sound too bad, but the team was hoping for a much better result. Unfortunately, a few things did not go their way during the race.

One of the main problems was the weather. Before the race, many teams expected rain. Ferrari planned part of their race strategy around the idea that rain might come, but it never did. They were also hoping there would be a safety car at some point, which can help mix things up and create chances to gain positions, but the race ran smoothly without any interruptions.

Hamilton started in eighth place and only managed to move up to seventh. He said after the race: “There was no safety car, so it didn’t really make much difference. I think the medium tyre was definitely better at the start, especially in these cool conditions.” The Briton had started on the harder tyre, which made the first laps more difficult because it takes longer to warm up and work properly.

He added: “It was a pretty lonely race. I did not have anyone really around me.” While he overtook one car early on, he was never close enough to fight the cars in front. “I went as long as I could but generally didn’t have the pace of Mercedes, for example, or the guys that were ahead of me, so it was pretty straightforward.”

Hamilton also shared that something has been wrong with his car since the beginning of the season. He explained: “I was maximum today. I didn’t have anything else in the car.” Ferrari has now found a part of the car that is not working properly and is making him slower. He believes this issue is costing him more than a tenth of a second every lap.

“I am really hoping once that is fixed, I can get better results,” he said, quoted by RacingNews365. “The team are aware of it and they don’t know what has caused it… but hopefully when the new component comes, it will be gone and it’ll be the same across both cars.”

There was another issue too. After being disqualified in China, Ferrari had to raise the car higher off the ground than they usually would. This affects the aerodynamics and makes the car slower, especially on a track like Suzuka, which has many fast corners.

“Had underperformance happening at the rear of the car this weekend,” Hamilton noted. “And obviously, qualifying position is key.”

Leclerc started in fourth place and stayed there until the end. He said the race was “very boring” because the cars in front of him, like the McLarens, were too fast to catch. “That’s the absolute best we could do,” he admitted. “It’s a bit of a shame that there’s not more in the car.”

He added: “I was trying to manage the gap with George [Russell] behind. He was a little bit faster at the end, I was a little bit faster in the middle part of the race.” Leclerc also said, “I’m happy in a way because after a weekend like this, we’ve done so much, and I found a way to help me maximise the car more for the future.”

Right now, it looks like Ferrari is only the fourth-best team. Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes all seem faster at the moment. Hamilton summed it up by saying, “We’ve got a lot of work to do to close the gap to the top cars.”