Lewis Hamilton can understand somewhat amped-up responses to rollercoaster Ferrari form as he seeks improvements during his first campaign with the Italian Formula 1 giants.
A Sprint pole position and victory in Shanghai has been a highlight amid a troubled birth for F1’s potent match-up of the most successful team and driver.
Hamilton has professed on several occasions the enormity of his task, tuning into Ferrari after more than a decade at Mercedes.
His most recent weekend with Ferrari, at the Bahrain Grand Prix, was a mixed bag with Hamilton coming away despondent after qualifying ninth, but then positive having turned a corner with an improvement to fifth on race day.
The peaks and troughs have been hyped in equal measure throughout Hamilton’s Ferrari stint so far, and he can understand the hysteria.
“I mean, on one side it’s to be expected, it’s the greatest team in Formula 1 history,” Hamilton said on Thursday in Jeddah (via Planet F1).
“It’s that special. Of course, there’s more clips, there’s more stories that are written about it, and people have opinions, and it’s not always been smooth sailing.”
Hamilton doubled down on his opinion that improvements will take time with Ferrari, acknowledging that there are “short-term” and “long-term” solutions required.
“I think from just from my perspective, you can’t work with a team and change things overnight, and we’ve spent this time really getting to know each other,” Hamilton said.
“There are changes that are short term, that we will do together, keep all the greatness, and keep building the areas that we could be stronger in, and some of those take it could be short term, and some of them are longer term.”
Hamilton keen ‘to protect’ Ferrari from scutiny
Hamilton hailed the passion instilled within Ferrari’s ranks and said how he’s keen “to protect” his peers from the intense scrutiny that they are put under.
“There’s so many great things within this team, and so we want to harness the energy and the passion that’s within the team, and we also have to, like, protect the team as well, because the spotlight’s more on this team than any other team,” he said.
“Everyone in this team, really, their heart is so in it.
“Like, we’re riding the rollercoaster ride up and down together.
“I have no doubts that we will get to where we plan to be. It’s just going to take time.”
As it stands, Hamilton is seventh in the Drivers’ standings with a return of 25 points.
Excessive plank wear saw him robbed of sixth place in the Chinese GP, which would make his points tally slightly more favourable and upgrades to the Ferrari SF-25 floor last time out could raise Hamilton’s ceiling at the Scuderia.
Speaking of his aforementioned positivity in Bahrain, Hamilton said after finishing fifth at the Sakhir Circuit, “I’ve learned a lot from today, and this weekend actually a lot, probably more than all the other weekends.”
It’s less than a day until Hamilton can put that to the test around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
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