美国大奖赛暴露法拉利短板
勒克莱尔在美国大奖赛获得亚军后表示，未能夺冠令人遗憾；领队瓦塞尔承认，法拉利在排位赛第三节最后两圈丢失了时间。
勒克莱尔在美国大奖赛获得亚军后的言论，完美概括了法拉利2026赛季F1征程的许多方面。
他说，"我们未能夺冠"令人"遗憾"。
奥斯汀站典型地体现了法拉利今年的一个反复出现的主题：练习赛全程强劲，排位赛早期有竞争力，Q3表现令人失望，正赛中追赶，但往往为时过晚，无法拿下胜利。
领队弗雷德里克·瓦塞尔并未否认这一评价。
他说：“我认为这个周末进展顺利，升级套件的一切都按预期工作。但问题在于，从FP1第一圈到正赛最后一圈，我们所有圈都跑得不错，唯独两辆车在Q3的最后两圈例外。那大概就是我们有所欠缺的地方。”
美国大奖赛不仅对法拉利，也对所有在前方竞争的车队凸显了一点：如果一切没有做到完美，排位赛中损失最小的时间也可能决定整个周末的成败。
勒克莱尔和汉密尔顿在发车格上位列第四和第五，无论从最终名次还是对正赛希望的影响来看，这都令人失望。
然而汉密尔顿第五快的圈速，距离维斯塔潘用来让自己占据头排发车位的成绩，仅差0.097秒。
正如瓦塞尔所说：“我们不必下结论，因为我们是第五名，距离第一名只有0.3秒。这不算灾难。你可能是第五名，但距离第二名0.8秒。”
定义法拉利周末的差距，并非底盘/引擎组合缺少根本性的东西；而是在Q3等关键时刻未能充分挖掘其全部潜力。
而在不让千分之一秒溜走这件事上，并非所有因素都能控制，这也是法拉利并非唯一遇到的问题。
许多车手在美洲赛道Q3的第二轮尝试中都难以提升，迈凯伦的兰多·诺里斯认为他的赛车足够快，可以排到第二，但最终只排在第八位（部分原因是违反了赛道限制）。
瓦塞尔补充道：“确实如此，就赛车和轮胎而言，工作窗口非常狭窄。一旦你稍微偏离，很快就会损失两到三成。”
“如今在F1中，对于前八名来说，两到三成可能意味着六个名次的变化。这意味着，一阵风、出圈时稍微滑得太多，或者不得不减速过多并保持节奏，都可能让你从超级成绩跌至一无所有。”
众所周知，法拉利赛车的特性使其在排位赛中比其他车队更难让轮胎进入工作状态，因此勒克莱尔和汉密尔顿在寻找理想工作温度甜区时总是困难得多。
如果像奥斯汀那样乌云密布、温度哪怕只下降几度，他们的头疼可能会加剧。勒克莱尔表示，这在Q3中的影响对他来说就像“白天与黑夜”的差别，甚至出圈的感觉都截然不同。
不过这不仅仅是轮胎的问题，因为汉密尔顿在美国大奖赛周末的调校选择上付出了代价。
他在第一节练习中未能迅速进入状态，在第二节练习中走错了方向，此后尽管到周六早上情况有所好转，但他一直在追赶，试图找到一个前部有足够抓地力的平衡。
而且在正赛前没有调整到位，前轮在早期阶段过度磨损，使他追赶勒克莱尔的希望破灭。
“我认为我们只是一直没有调到最佳，不知为何，持续地没有调到最佳，”汉密尔顿说。
他只有在比赛最后一节时，才把赛车的平衡调到了接近所需的状态，但那时已经太晚，做不了什么了。不过如下图所示，他与勒克莱尔的差距被大幅缩小了。
回顾整场比赛中不断加大前翼角度，汉密尔顿说：“在进站期间，我加了四格。下一次进站，又加了四格，即便如此，我还是差了四格。”
“这太疯狂了，差了12格。我们真的需要研究一下是怎么走到这一步的。”
他补充道：“我觉得如果我能拥有我需要的平衡，哪怕只是在最后一节有那个平衡，我本可以一直战斗到最后。”
勒克莱尔本人认为，他成功调校到赛车上的设定——以及他对转向敏锐赛车的容忍度是众所周知的——是他取得进步的关键。
“这些赛车非常特殊且独特，我觉得在过去两三场比赛中，我在驾驶方面再次解锁了一些东西，尤其是在调校与我的驾驶风格相匹配方面，”他说。
奥斯汀的教训——法拉利需要在正确的时间做好一切——来得正是时候，因为车队开始为明年的赛车确定概念选择。
而这正是汉密尔顿全神贯注确保将自己的意见纳入其中的事情。
他说：“我认为这是一个关键节点，可以借此把赛车引向明年正确的方向。”
“所以我正在着力处理我们明年赛车需要改进的领域，这是本周末以及接下来几个周末讨论的一部分。”
法拉利不需要一场革命，就能找到如今让第三排和前排产生差距的进步。
更多动力会有帮助，但众所周知，法拉利为此牺牲了一部分动力，以换取更好的底盘性能。然而，就像第三节排位赛中正在发生的情况一样，细节将决定一切。
汉密尔顿补充道：“现在正是你真正需要做出决定的时候，并且要明确这些就是那些区域——如果你为明年把这些地方修正好，每个弯角就能快半成。”
“这些就是我们正在挣扎的区域。这就是我明年想要的空气动力学平衡。但问题并不是特别多。”
“我认为我们有一套非常好的套件，所以要保留赛车上的优点，并纠正这几处细微的差别，然后再看看直线速度的情况。”
英文原文
Charles Leclerc's comments after finishing runner-up in the United States Grand Prix perfectly sum up much of Ferrari's 2026 Formula 1 campaign.
He said it was a "shame" that "we came short of winning".
Austin typified a bit of a running theme for Ferrari this year. Strong throughout practice, in contention early on in qualifying, underwhelming in Q3, recovering in the race but often leaving it too late to take the victory.
It is an assessment that team principal Fred Vasseur did not dispute.
"I think the weekend went well and everything is working as expected on the [upgrade] package," he said. "But the issue is that we did all the laps, from the first lap of FP1 to the last lap of the race, in good shape except the last two laps of Q3 on both cars. It's probably where we missed something."
What the US GP highlighted for not just Ferrari but all those fighting at the front is that, if everything is not nailed perfectly, the consequences from losing the smallest amount of time in qualifying can define weekends.
Fourth and fifth on the grid for Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton was a disappointment in terms of the final positions and the impact that would then have on their hopes for the race.
Yet Hamilton's fifth-fastest time was just 0.097 seconds off what Max Verstappen had been able to deliver to put himself on the front row.
As Vasseur said: "We don't have to draw a conclusion because we are P5 and we are three tenths off P1. It’s not a disaster. You can be P5 and be eight tenths off P2."
The deficit that defined Ferrari's weekend is not about a chassis/engine package lacking something fundamental; it’s about extracting the full potential from it in critical moments such as Q3.
And when it comes to not letting thousandths slip away, not all the elements can be controlled, and it's a problem that Ferrari is not alone in experiencing.
A lot of drivers struggled to improve on their second Q3 runs at the Circuit of the Americas, and McLaren's Lando Norris reckoned he had a car quick enough for second but ended up eighth on the grid (held back partly by a track-limits breach).
Vasseur added: "What is true is that with the cars and the tyres, the window is very narrow. And as soon as you are a bit out, quickly you lose two or three tenths.
"Today in F1 for the top eight, two or three tenths can be six positions. It means that you can move from a super result to nowhere for a gust of wind, or you slide a little bit too much in the outlap, or you have to slow down a bit too much and stick to your pace."
It's well understood that Ferrari's car characteristics make it harder for it to fire up the tyres for qualifying than others, so Leclerc and Hamilton always have a much tougher time finding that ideal sweet spot with operating temperatures.
And their headaches can increase if, as happened at Austin, the clouds come over and the temperature drops even just a few degrees. Leclerc said the impact of this in Q3 was like a "night and day" difference for him in terms of how even the outlap felt.
It is not just about tyres though, because Hamilton paid the price for set-up choices made over the US weekend.
He had not hit the ground running in FP1, went in the wrong direction in FP2 and from then on, although things were better by Saturday morning, was in catch-up mode as he chased a balance that had enough on the nose.
And having not gone far enough before the race, the front washing out too much in the early stages put paid to his hopes of matching Leclerc.
"I think we've just been under-hitting it, continuously under-hit it, for some reason," said Hamilton.
He only got his car anywhere near where he needed the balance to be for the final stint of the race, by which stage it was too late to do anything. But as the graphic below shows, the deficit to Leclerc was slashed considerably.
Reflecting on adding more and more front wing throughout the race, Hamilton said: "Through the pitstops, I added four clicks. The next pitstop, added another four clicks, and even then, I'm still another four clicks too short.
"It's crazy, like to be 12 clicks down. We really need to look in how we are getting to that point."
He added: "I think if I had had the balance that I need, even if I just had the balance in the last stint, I would have been right in the fight all the way to the end."
Leclerc himself felt that a set-up he has managed to dial into the car - and his tolerance with a pointy car is well-known - has been the key to progress he has made.
"These cars are very specific and unique, and I feel like, over the last two or three races, I've unlocked something again in terms of driving, and particularly set-up with my driving," he said.
The lesson from Austin that Ferrari needs to nail everything at the right moment comes at an important time as it begins committing to its concept choices for next year's car.
And this is something that Hamilton is laser-focused on ensuring he feeds his opinion into.
"I see a pivotal moment in terms of steering the car in the right direction for next year," he said.
"So I'm really working on areas that we need to improve for next year's car, so that's part of the discussion this weekend, the next couple of weekends."
It does not need a revolution for Ferrari to find the progress that is the difference these days between the third row and the front.
More power will help, but it's known Ferrari sacrificed some of that for better chassis performance. However, like with what is happening in Q3, it's the details that are going to count for everything.
Hamilton added: "This is the time where you actually start to need to make decisions and actually fall in line that these are the areas that if you fix these for next year it's half a tenth in every corner.
"These are the areas that we're struggling with. This is where I want the aero balance to be for next year. But there's not a huge amount of things.
"I think we've got a really good package, so it's keeping on the good things of the car and rectifying a couple of these small, subtle differences, and then see about the straightline speed."
The Race ·
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