Lewis Hamilton has insisted people outside Ferrari have “underestimated” the work that is going on behind the scenes to aid his adaptation to the team in Formula 1.
Hamilton has endured a mixed beginning to his much-anticipated Ferrari stint as a maiden win with the team in China has sandwiched two disappointing Grands Prix.
The Briton bemoaned set-up changes derailing his race in Shanghai as he crossed the line in sixth, having been unable to replicate his dominant pace from the Sprint.
Ferrari’s anguish was compounded post-race as both Hamilton and team-mate Charles Leclerc, who finished fifth, were excluded due to unrelated technical breaches.
The Maranello-based squad’s 2025 machine, the SF-25, has shown promise in occasional spells, but it has been unable to extract that potential on a consistent basis.
However, Hamilton has admitted that being unacquainted with the various set-up avenues that can be explored on the car has also been behind his inconsistent start.
“It’s a combination of probably several different things, but I think mostly just pinning the set-up,” Hamilton told media including Motorsport Week in Japan.
“I told you that I’m still learning about this car, so I still haven’t tested every item that they have yet.
“Ultimately, I made the wrong decision on set-up for the Saturday going into qualifying at the last race, which then I just had to live with for the race.
“If we had just left the car probably alone, or actually [if] the step that we did take [had been] an improvement, I think we could have qualified in the top three, which would then have had a much different result, most likely.
“But that wasn’t the case, and it was really difficult to drive from the moment we went out in qualifying, and then it was the same balance on a Sunday, so we just had to persevere with it.”
Hamilton not suffering Mercedes hangover
Hamilton is the sole driver to have switched sides over the winter to be leading their team-mate, with his predecessor, Carlos Sainz, among those who have struggled.
But although the Spaniard has conceded he could need up to 10 races to dial out those tendencies, Hamilton denied that has hampered his transition from Mercedes.
When asked whether he was in the same position as Sainz, Hamilton responded: “I really don’t know. I don’t feel like I’m driving this like I drove my last car.
“For me, it’s just understanding, as I said, the technical side. It’s the understanding of all the tools that I have.
“It likes to be driven differently, but also I think there is, as I mentioned the last time we spoke, there is a general lack of understanding of what we do back there from the outside.
“Outside of that garage, I think most people completely underestimate what we actually do and when we’re talking about set-up and the changes that we’re making, all the different graphs that you’re looking at for aero through corner balance, mechanical balance, floor balance, all these different things that we’re trying to play with and finesse through the weekend.”
Hamilton content with Ferrari adaptation
Having not completed a race simulation in dry conditions with Ferrari prior to the last round, Hamilton expressed that he has been pleased with how he has adapted.
“There’s also, for me, after analysing after the last two races, but the first race, I generally didn’t feel great in the car at the beginning, but my pace wasn’t too bad on the first two days and Sunday was the first time I’d ever driven the car in the rain and it was, you know, I was learning a lot throughout the race,” he recalled.
“Then in the last race, that was the first time I’d actually done a long run, so I didn’t get to – every other driver here pretty much got to do [the] Abu Dhabi test and try the 2025 tyre – I didn’t, and we went into the race, the race run in Bahrain and the car broke down, so I didn’t actually get to do a long run on any of the tyres and so the Sprint race was the first timeI’d actually done a 28-lap stint on the tyre and then in the race was the first time I’d ever tried the C2, so I was just learning that through race.
“You don’t just put the tyre on and know what it’s going to do, so I definitely feel like I was starting to feel the onwards effect of not being able to do the test at the end of the year.
“And, so in reflection, I was actually quite happy with how I’ve adapted in those two races, but definitely got a lot of work to do to make sure that it’s better moving forward.”
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