Lewis Hamilton has denied that he has been exposed to the expectation of being a Ferrari driver in Formula 1 as the pressure that he puts on himself is “10 times higher”.
Hamilton is gearing up to embark upon his maiden race with Ferrari this weekend in Australia to begin a venture that he hopes will deliver him a record eighth Drivers’ title.
However, the Briton has moved to the Maranello-based squad at a time when it is enduring a prolonged run without a single championship success dating back to 2008.
That protracted drought has added to the strain that comes with representing the sport’s most storied team, but Hamilton has denied that will have an impact on him at all.
“I think through the years the pressure that I put on myself has always been 10 times higher than any other pressure that can be put upon me,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“I’ve not joined this team and been made to feel any pressure. I have an expectation for myself. I know what I can bring; I know I can deliver. I know what it’s going to take to do that.
“And it’s just getting your head down and working away. So I come with a very open mind coming into this weekend. It is about getting into a season. It’s about getting into a good rhythm.
“I still as I said a while ago still learning this new car that’s quite a lot different to what I’ve driven for all my previous career in the sense of the Mercedes power.
“Coming to Ferrari power it’s something quite new. Different vibration, different feel, different way of working. The whole team works completely differently.
“You’re looking at things all in from a different perspective which makes it exciting and challenging.
“So I definitely this is the most exciting period of my life. And so I’m really just enjoying it and I’m so excited to get in the car tomorrow.”
Hamilton not underestimating Ferrari challenge
Hamilton reiterated that he is leaving no stone unturned in his ambition to succeed at Ferrari as he insisted that he is not underestimating the challenge that awaits him.
Asked whether he feels the weight of expectation associated with driving for Ferrari, he retorted: “I’m not because I don’t really read the news and I go for long, long periods of time without social media so I’m not like being bombarded with all the stuff that’s on social media, so I’m kind of living in my own little bubble in my head.
“For me, I’m back at kind of square one, I’m really just putting all the time I have in. I’ve been at the factory like four days a week.
“I’ve been giving absolutely everything to training to push my mind and my body into further than I have before trying to see if I can excel and just squeeze more juice out of this that I have.
“I’m under no assumptions that it will be easy, it is not and as I said I know what I have, but I don’t feel the pressure.
“The outside pressure, it’s non-existent for me. The pressure is from within and what I want to achieve.
“I’m not here to prove anything to anybody I don’t feel I have to do anything I’ve been here a long, long time and done it time and time again so I think for now it’s more I know as I said I know what it takes to do a good job and that’s what I want to deliver for myself and for my family, for this team that I really believe deserve success.
“And I can see like Carlos’ [Sainz] experience in his new team [at Williams], when you see such a group a large group of people that are clearly so passionate and driven and maybe have not had as much success as they would like or than they deserve you just want to work towards and contribute to doing that.”
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