Lewis Hamilton argued ahead of the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix that anyone questioning his “100 per cent faith” in Ferrari is talking “complete rubbish.”
Hamilton has had a rollercoaster acclimation to the Italian F1 giants.
His debut outing with Ferrari in Melbourne brought with it mixed conditions, and he had to adapt to his new team for the first time in the wet.
Then in Shanghai, he took pole and victory in the Sprint, before set-up changes turned the weekend on its head with a post-race disqualification for a technical infringement, capping things off.
Hamilton told select media, including Motorsport Week, on Thursday that he wasn’t frustrated by the disqualification and instead took aim at people critiquing his commitment to Ferrari.
“I didn’t feel like any frustration or anything afterwards, it is what it is,” Hamilton cooly explained.
“Of course, we’ve gone through everything. We take the highs and lows of the season, and we try to make sure that we go together as a team.
“Obviously, it’s not what everyone’s worked hard to have happen on a race weekend.
“No team, no engineer, no mechanic puts all the effort into something like that but it’s, I’d say the most impressive thing is how the team have taken it, how they’ve worked, how they’ve churned through the data and how we’ve progressed from here is the most important.
“I saw someone say something about whether I’m losing faith in the team, which is complete rubbish.
“I have absolute 100% faith in this team.”
Hamilton keeping expectations low for first year with Ferrari
Hamilton went on to acknowledge the “hype” around his move to Ferrari.
The move marries the most successful team and driver in F1 history, and naturally that brings with it some hefty expectations from the viewing public.
Hamilton, however, who has scored just nine points across two rounds as Ferrari has endured its worst start to a season since the current points format was introduced in 2010, has measured his expectations.
“I think there was obviously a huge amount of hype at the beginning of the year, and I don’t know if everyone was expecting us to be winning from race one and winning a championship in our first year, that wasn’t my expectation,” he said.
“I know that I’m coming into a new culture, a new team and it’s going to take time.
“I’ve spent the past two months just observing how the team works in comparison to the other two teams that I’ve worked at, and through this past week, I’ve been out to make notes and create points of areas that I feel like we can improve.
“That will continue through the year as we learn more and more about each other.”
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