Lewis Hamilton says he needs more time to adapt to Ferrari
The Chinese GP was a weekend of mixed emotions for Lewis Hamilton and Scuderia Ferrari. A superb win in the Saturday sprint was followed by a disappointing main qualifying session after a set-up change didn’t pay off.
Then an equally frustrating run to sixth place in the race ended with disqualification for excessive skid wear – something that happened to both Lewis and his new Ferrari team mate Charles Leclerc at the 2023 US GP.
In a rush to judgement after Shanghai some observers were quick to suggest that things are going wrong at Ferrari, despite the sprint win coming in only Hamilton’s second weekend with the team.
The reality is that it’s just the start of a long journey, and the disqualification was just a blip that will be quickly overcome.
“I didn’t feel like any frustration or anything afterwards,” Lewis said when I asked him about it in Suzuka on Thursday. “It is what it is. Of course, we’ve gone through everything. I was at the factory on Wednesday, and lots of learns. We take the highs and lows together as a team.
“And obviously it’s not what everyone’s worked hard to have happen on a race weekend, no team, no engineer and no mechanic, puts all the effort in for something like that. But I’d say the most impressive thing is how the team has taken it, how they’ve worked, how they’ve churned through the data, and how we progress from here is most important.”
Hamilton has no time for the critics, and he knows he needs more time.
“I saw someone sent me something of whether I’m losing faith in the team, which is complete rubbish. I have absolute 100% faith in this team. 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. 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 able to make notes and create pointers of areas that I feel that we can improve on, and that will continue through the year, we learn More and more about each other.”
Hamilton stresses that he has much to learn, and his view is echoed by Carlos Sainz, who admits it will take time for him to feel comfortable at Williams.
“I don’t feel like I’m driving this like I drove my last car,” said Lewis. “For me, it’s just understanding as I said, the technical side and understanding of the all the tools that I have. It likes to be driven differently. But also I think there is a general lack of understanding of what we do back there.
“Outside of that garage I think most people completely underestimate what we actually do, and when we’re talking about setup and changes that we’re making, all the different graphs that you’re looking at for through corner balance, mechanical balance, floor, balance, all these different things that we’re trying to play with and finesse through a weekend.
“After analysing after the last two races, you’ve got the first race, but I generally didn’t feel great in the car at the beginning, but it wasn’t too bad on the first two days. And the Sunday was the first time I’d ever driven the car in the rain. And I was learning a lot throughout the race.
“Then in the last race, that was the first time I’d actually done a long run. Every other driver here pretty much got to do the Abu Dhabi test and try the 2025 tyre. I didn’t. When we went into 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 time I’d actually done a 20-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 the 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, actually I’m quite happy at how I’ve adapted in just those two races. But definitely got a lot of work to do to make sure that it’s better moving forwards.”
Hamilton is adamant that China could easily have gone differently.
“I think if we just left the car probably alone, or actually the step that we did take was an improvement, I think could have qualified in the top three, which would then have had a much different result, most likely.
“But it 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 the Sunday. So just had to persevere with it.
“And in this period of time, I’m not directing my engineers. I mean more so probably when I was at Mercedes, obviously I knew the car. I knew all the tools. So it’s kind of like, this is where I want to go. This is what I want to do more often than not.
“I didn’t always get it right, but as we’re here, kind of making notes, and then you have to take a lot of the guidance from those who have spent time with all the different World Champions before me.
“And then as a team, we didn’t make the right choice for quali on either car. What was interesting is the improved balance that Charles had with the damage to his car. Was fascinating to see. It was a big, big improvement, to say the least!”
Suzuka is one of Hamilton’s favourite tracks, and it will be interesting to see how he can come to grips with the car over the three practice sessions.
Adam Cooper F1 