Lewis Hamilton has admitted he needs a “drastic shift” in driving style to get suited to his Ferrari Formula 1 machine.
Hamilton’s start to life with Ferrari has been turbulent, with the highs of securing a Sprint victory in China from pole position to the lows of qualifying ninth in Bahrain.
But Hamilton was in high spirits after rising to fifth on race day at the Bahrain International Circuit, feeling progress had been made, but added he was still working at adapting to an “alien” Ferrari F1 car after 12 years with Mercedes.
Speaking ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Hamilton admitted his key task was to continue evolving his driving to suit the SF-25.
“My focus this weekend is driving style, really getting on top of the circuit and getting into a rhythm,” he said.
“[Jeddah] is a circuit, a bit like Monaco or Baku, where you have to get into a rhythm as early as possible and then just make incremental gains from there and not be overdriving.
“I’ve got a lot of work to do to adapt the way I approach corners but it’s not impossible, it might just take a little bit of time but hopefully not too long.
“I won’t want to go too much into detail but it’s just driving style. Every driver had a driving style and my driving style has worked for many years.
“Naturally you adapt it a little bit over time but this one needs more of a drastic shift and so I found a couple of things that worked in the last race.”
Friday practice shows there’s work to do for Hamilton and Ferrari
Alas, after finishing 13th in Friday’s FP2 session in Jeddah, Hamilton was downcast.
The seven-time Champion said, “there’s not a lot backwards for me to go from where I am.”
This speaks to the enormity of the task Hamilton is undertaking with Ferrari and harks back to further comments the Briton said in Sakhir.
“I’ve learned a lot from today, and this weekend actually a lot, probably more than all the other weekends,” Hamilton noted last Sunday, before adding, “the key is to try and get back to it every weekend.”
The results from Friday show getting back to that positive headspace might take Hamilton some time.
On Thursday, Hamilton said “diligence” will be required every weekend to adapt his driving style as he arrives at each venue for the first time in red.
“Implementing [a new driving style] everywhere I go will be a challenge and I know that particularly when you start to…when you’re in Qualifying and you need to push to get that extra bit I can imagine myself falling straight back to my old ways so that’s something I’m just going to have to really stay patient with and diligent with,” he concluded.
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