Lewis Hamilton says he has the “most optimistic feeling” he has had “for a very long time” heading into his debut F1 season with Ferrari.
The seven-time world champion is gearing up for his first season with Ferrari after finishing a seismic switch to the Italian crew this yr after 12 seasons with Mercedes – a transfer which despatched shockwaves by the game.
Hamilton set the second-fastest time on day two of F1’s three-day pre-season take a look at in Bahrain as he ended up simply 0.031 seconds behind the person he changed at Ferrari, Carlos Sainz.
Talking on Thursday in Bahrain, Hamilton declared that he was “actually having fun with” his new Ferrari and stated he’s “slowly bonding” with the crew’s 2025 challenger forward of the brand new marketing campaign.
Requested for his intestine feeling in regards to the SF-25 earlier than driving on Friday afternoon, Hamilton replied: “I believe most likely the final 4 years or so, I’ve discovered that you just actually can’t take an excessive amount of from the primary outlook.
“For me, I positively suppose, significantly within the earlier era of automobile, it was a lot simpler to know the place you stood a lot earlier on with that early feeling. I’d say that is probably the most optimistic feeling that I’ve had for a very long time, that’s all I can actually say for now.”
The 40-year-old Briton supplied extra element about his adaptation to F1’s most well-known and profitable crew.
“It is a actually important few days that you just get within the automobile,” Hamilton defined. “We’re simply specializing in doing the very best job that we will with what we now have and understanding the package deal we now have.
“Clearly for me I’m studying increasingly more about how the crew likes to work and making small tweaks right here and there to enhance my effectivity and the effectivity of how we work collectively. So it’s been actually optimistic.”
Simply how completely different are Ferrari’s F1 vehicles?
Lewis Hamilton
Talking in regards to the variations of Ferrari’s F1 vehicles in comparison with what he has beforehand pushed at Mercedes and McLaren, Hamilton added: “Firstly they’re very properly constructed and massively completely different in traits.
“Somewhat than simply leaping into this automobile and having precisely the identical, it’s been refreshing to have one thing to study. Other ways to how you need to drive the automobile, completely different necessities to the way you strategy corners, the engine has a special tone, a special really feel, completely different drivability, and I’ve been driving a Mercedes for thus lengthy, which is such an important energy unit.
“It’s nice to see that Ferrari even have an important energy unit. It’s one thing that I’m spending time with the engineers from the engine division and studying the method they take for reliability and energy. That’s a course of in itself however to this point it’s been actually nice.”
Alongside together with his one and a half days behind the wheel of Ferrari’s 2025 challenger in Bahrain, Hamilton, who famously dislikes testing, has additionally had the possibility to pattern the crew’s 2023 and 2024 vehicles in non-public exams in Italy and Spain.
However when requested if he would really like extra testing days to assist him stand up to hurry together with his new crew, Hamilton laughed: “No! I nonetheless am not a fan of testing however I’ve actually loved the testing I’ve had this yr.
“I’m tremendous grateful for the TPC testing that I received to do. If I solely had at the present time and a half, I positively wouldn’t be on this place now when it comes to how snug I really feel within the automobile. There’s nonetheless some methods to go. At this level I’m simply excited to get racing.”
