Ralf Schumacher noticed Lewis Hamilton “tension” after Charles Leclerc “woke up”

Ex-F1 driver Ralf Schumacher noticed “some tension” at Ferrari after Charles Leclerc’s impressive recovery at the Chinese Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton enjoyed a strong start to the weekend last time out in Shanghai, dominating the sprint part of the weekend.

Hamilton took pole in sprint qualifying before taking a comfortable sprint race victory.

Ferrari failed to replicate this in qualifying, settling for fifth and sixth on the grid for the main grand prix.

It was a disastrous Sunday as Ferrari lacked pace relative to the top three teams.

Matters were made worse for Ferrari as their two cars were disqualified for technical infringements.

Speaking to Formel1.de, Schumacher said: “When you don’t know the team that well, you’re new, until you get the hang of it, until your engineer understands you, it takes a few months, and I think you saw that on Sunday.

“Of course, it wasn’t in free air, which makes a big difference in China, and his teammate passed him with the broken wing because I have to say, for the aerodynamicists, put six broken front wings in, they will work just as well or better than a whole one.

“So, it’s a bit of a hard one to understand, but I think he did a good, solid job, and I think Charles Leclerc also woke up. I think that annoyed him, and there was some tension. Hamilton wasn’t used to being told to drive fast on the teammate’s side.”

Hamilton ‘proved’ he still has the speed

Schumacher believes China was a breakthrough weekend for Hamilton, who proved “he still has the speed”.

It was the first time Hamilton had won a sprint race since the format was introduced for 2021.

More importantly, Hamilton hit the ground running in terms of pace - something that wasn’t often the case at Mercedes.

“What did surprise me is that he really got on really well with the car in the first practice session, and that was always such an issue for him,” Schumacher explained.

“He brakes like that and couldn’t turn in and then he says, man, I drove here, first lap, and of course it worked straight away, and the track suits me. This means that everything came together, which makes me happy because it proves that he still has the speed because that’s always a bit of a question as you get older.

“So he has the speed now, it’s just a question of can he keep it up, that’s what I meant from the start.”