Hamilton and Leclerc confused by woeful Ferrari pace in Austrian GP

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc are seeking answers on their Ferrari's crippling rear tyre degradation that saw both drivers slide backwards in a sweltering Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix.

Starting from third, Hamilton was keen to put pressure on leader George Russell after getting past his team-mate Leclerc and fighting out an entertaining duel with Red Bull's Max Verstappen early on.

But in hot conditions, excessive tyre degradation soon saw Hamilton shift to a three-stop strategy, which he never really managed to make work.

After only 13 laps on hard tyres in stint two, the seven-time world champion used a virtual safety car to take on a set of soft rubber, but that still left him with a long final stint on hard tyres identical to McLaren's Oscar Piastri, who used a two-stop strategy to get ahead in fourth.

"I was on the attack, obviously I got past Charles and I thought it wasn't looking too bad in the first few laps," Hamilton told Sky.

"With George, I was kind of holding on for a second and then the rears just dropped off on every set [of tyres]. For some reason, the balance was very difficult. We just couldn't keep up with everyone today."

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen fought out an entertaining battle early on until both Ferraris dropped back

Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images

Leclerc fared much worse, dropping from second to a distant eight-placed finish, as Ferrari's recalcitrant handling traits left him confused over the team's set-up direction, while he was able to put in a strong lap in qualifying 24 hours prior.

"It was just an incredibly difficult race," Leclerc sighed. "Very, very low grip overall. Just struggled to have the car and the tyres in the right window, especially the rears - just missing a lot of rear grip. Yesterday, I was quite happy with the car. But it wasn't in the right direction today."

Austria continues a recent trend of Leclerc struggling much more than Hamilton to get a tune out of the SF-26, either in qualifying or over a race distance.

"I've been working very hard in the past weeks because there was always one reason or another that made me struggle on the Sunday or on the Saturday," he added. "That probably means that I don't really have a clear picture of what I want from this car. I've got to find that.

"This weekend we've been a lot more on the back foot, especially in the race. It's difficult for us to understand. On Saturday with low fuel the car was quite nice. The front-end was quite strong and I like this.

"In the race today, the front-end stayed strong, but the rear had no [grip]. So, it's a balance that you've got to find that on this car is particularly difficult."

Frederic Vasseur, Ferrari

Photo by: Michael Potts / LAT Images via Getty Images

Team principal Fred Vasseur suggested his drivers paid a price for asking too much from their tyres in the opening stages of the high-temperature race as they tried to keep up with intrinsically faster cars.

"We are all on the edge in this situation. And if you don't have the pace, you push, you take some risk on the strategy. And when it's not paying off, you pay the bill at the end," Vasseur argued.

"That's what happened today for us. We didn't have the pace to fight with Mercedes and Max and we over-pushed the first couple of laps. We had to change the strategy, and everything went in the wrong direction, but it's a good lesson."

While stuck in traffic, Ferrari also suffered from power unit overheating which left Hamilton wanting for more engine performance.

"It was overheating and depending on where you are on track, you have to more or less take care of the drivers," Vasseur explained. "The target was to be in clean air. It paid off for Lewis in Barcelona because we were able to do 80% of the race in clean air. And this weekend, it was not the case at all."