Lewis Hamilton has revealed he's "lost out" to Charles Leclerc through the set-up of his Ferrari car in recent races. Hamilton was outqualified by Leclerc at the United States Grand Prix and was unable to match his team-mate's impressive pace in the race on his way to fourth, while Leclerc finished second behind race-winner Kimi Antonelli. At the previous race in Singapore, Hamilton looked strong in qualifying until Q3 when he was beaten by Leclerc, and a similar pattern occurred in Austin where the seven-time world champion topped final practice, only to qualify fifth.
"I lost a lot of points in the last five races or so," Hamilton, who is one point behind second-placed George Russell in the Drivers' Championship, told Sky Sports F1. "I think it has come from set-up, not perfect, the set-up. That's something I really have to get on top of.
That's where I have lost out. Performance-wise I feel like I've been driving well and the last [race] stint [in Austin] was good. The first two stints there was nothing I could do about that.
"Definitely lots to take away. The team did a great job to bring an upgrade. Charles got a second place.
We have got good performance. Hopefully when we go to Mexico, we can improve on where we have gone wrong on that setup." Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Ferrari continued to be the benchmark team in most corners at the Circuit of the Americas but lacked straight-line speed compared to Mercedes and Red Bull. But, Hamilton was unhappy with the car's low-speed balance in the first two stints of the Grand Prix which put him out of the podium fight.
I couldn't turn the car in the low-speed particularly - Turn 1, Turn 11, Turn 12, Turn 13, 14, 15. Massive understeer so the [other] cars pulled away when I was adjusting my settings," he said. "By the time we got to the last stint, we got closer to the balance but we should have started with that balance at the beginning.
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