BREAKING: Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc Hit Out at ‘Nonsense’… read more 

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have hit back at suggestions that their Ferrari team had the fastest car at the Singapore Grand Prix last time out.

Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar had suggested that Max Verstappen’s margin of victory at the Marina Bay street circuit would actually have been even larger had he been behind the wheel of one of the Scuderia’s machines, an idea that both of Ferrari’s drivers have rubbished.

Leclerc called the comparison between the cars ‘nonsense’, pointing out that the sport is so tightly packed at the top end that such claims are little more than guesswork.

Hamilton was more diplomatic, praising the French driver’s talents before admitting that ‘we’re going to have different opinions there’ when it comes to the Red Bull/Ferrari comparison.

Hadjar: Ferrari Were Fastest in Singapore

“I think the car is still very hard to drive,” Hadjar said on Thursday at the US Grand Prix. “In Malaysia, it was dominant, but I don’t think in Singapore it was the fastest car. That’s what I believe.

“I think if you put Max in the Ferrari, he would have won the race with more margin. That’s my opinion. In Singapore, I think [Ferrari] was the fastest car.”

Pressed on his reasoning, he added: “I mean, [Verstappen] qualified on pole by half a tenth. Ferrari didn’t have new tyres in the race. Not on the soft, so this has an effect as well. So, he put all the chances on his side, and he made a difference in Q3, and that was enough.”

Leclerc was unambiguously dismissive of the second-year driver’s theory, saying later:

“Well, first of all, I think it’s nonsense to start saying these kind of things. I mean, Isack has no idea what kind of car we drive, and I have no idea what kind of car he drives.

“I think it’s such a tight field that is very, very difficult for us to predict.

“Yes, of course, we kind of have an idea on how we will be on this track, but when you are speaking about such fine margins, it relies really on just optimising your package, and that has a much bigger influence than what we kind of expect in terms of cars.”

Hamilton: Red Bull Shocked Me With Engine Development

Hamilton was more measured in his response, saying:

“Firstly, I think Isack is an amazing driver, [but] we’re going to have different opinions there.

“Ultimately, Red Bull have done an amazing job for many, many years. They continuously, I think, surprise me, and I’ll fully put my hand up many, many years ago when I was younger, I was like, ‘There’s no way they’re going to be able to do what these other teams like McLaren with all that heritage, Ferrari with all that heritage [can do]’, but they have and they’ve proved me wrong, and they’ve continued to have amazing success over the years.

“This one is the engine. I was like, ‘There’s no way that anyone’s going to be able to build a better engine than what Mercedes, for example, or Ferrari are capable of doing with the resources they have and the experience they have and the IP [intellectual property]’. And yet again, they proved everybody wrong again, and they built the best engine. They’ve had the best engine this year.

“Obviously, they had a little bit of a wobbly start, but like you saw last year, they’ve got an amazing car. They’ve got great drivers. Clearly, got great leadership, and I think they will be very, very hard to [beat].

“They were just as quick through all the corners as us in the last race, and you know that’s been our strength. So, they’ve matched us now through the corners, and they’re three, four tenths quicker down the straights.

“We have a very small upgrade this weekend. It’s less than a tenth, it’s like half a tenth, so I don’t think that propels us forwards to be able to necessarily challenge that deficit.”