Despite a less-than-spectacular debut as a Ferrari driver at the Australian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton has assured fans that there are still significant improvements to be made. His first outing in the Ferrari red saw him finish in a somewhat disappointing P10, leading racing pundit and nine-time podium finisher, Martin Brundle, to label his performance as “disappointing by any metric.”
Hamilton, however, is far from discouraged. The seven-time World Champion believes that there is more speed to be found in the Ferrari SF-25. Hamilton’s comments follow a quiet performance at the Australian GP, where he qualified in P8 and finished P10. His performance was criticized for both its lack of pace and his apparent “angsty” attitude towards his new race engineer, Riccardo Adami.
Despite the criticism, Hamilton praised Adami’s work, noting, “Riccardo did a really good job,” and acknowledged the ongoing process of “learning about each other bit by bit”. Ferrari’s team principal, Fred Vasseur, echoed Hamilton’s sentiments, pointing out that the team is implementing better communication practices ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix.
Vasseur was quick to shift the blame away from Hamilton, stating “It was not the issue of Lewis, it was the issue of the team. We need to find the level of communication between the team, the drivers and engineers.”
Hamilton is confident that with a more refined approach, he can extract more performance from the SF-25. After a rain-affected Australian GP, he acknowledged that while his performance wasn’t optimal, he still managed to secure a point.
In his own words, Hamilton said, “Obviously didn’t go off or spin today, but lacking pace for sure. But I do believe the car has more performance than we were able to extract this weekend. It was even less performance, for example, in the race, but I think it’s all settings.”
The weather change on race day, from dry to wet, forced Hamilton to reset his driving approach. He admitted that his confidence was affected, particularly during high-speed segments of the race. However, he is hopeful that with the right car settings, the vehicle can offer much better performance.
Reflecting on his first Ferrari race weekend, Hamilton said he would do many things differently if given another opportunity. From car setup to race strategy, he believes there were missed opportunities.
One critical decision made by Ferrari was to keep their drivers on track when heavy rain arrived late in the Australian GP. Hamilton and his teammate, Charles Leclerc, moved up the order, but as the rain intensified, causing a crash involving Liam Lawson and Gabriel Bortoleto, and the subsequent appearance of the Safety Car, Ferrari decided to bring their drivers in, which resulted in both drivers falling down the order.
Hamilton concedes that it might have been a better choice to pit during the heavy rain, saying, “That’s the moment we should have probably come in.”
The Australian GP was won by McLaren’s Lando Norris, who held off a strong challenge from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Mercedes’ George Russell completed the podium. As Hamilton and Ferrari look ahead to the Chinese Grand Prix, it’s clear they have lessons to learn and improvements to make to bring out the full potential of the SF-25.
