With the pre-season testing officially concluded, new Ferrari F1 signing Lewis Hamilton has exhausted his testing allocation. Albeit hoping he could get more testing time, the Briton is feeling good so far despite it will only be 56 days since he joined the Prancing Horses to the first race in Melbourne in the next two weeks.
It has been the talk of the town seeing how Hamilton would fare in Ferrari following his departure from Mercedes F1 to “fulfill a childhood dream.”
Understanding the package is the top priority
Three days in pre-season testing is a bit too short for Hamilton’s liking. Nonetheless, the seven-time world champion stayed positive and has been focusing his testing time to get to know his machinery better and how the team operates.
“Yes, hard to believe it’s the last day of testing It’s kind of crazy it’s so short for everyone but this is really vital a few days that you get in the car.
“We’re just focussing on doing the best job we can with what we have and understanding the package we have and obviously for me, I’m learning more and more of how the team likes to work.
“I’m learning more and more of how the team likes to work and making small tweaks here and there to improve my efficiency and efficiency of how we work together, so it’s been really positive.”
Hamilton talks about driving a Ferrari F1 car
Hamilton sampled a Ferrari F1 car for the first time in January by taking the SF-23 around Ferrari’s Fiorano Circuit for some running as he got acclimatised to the team. Having grown accustomed to Mercedes cars, Hamilton was asked how different the Ferrari car to the Mercedes’. He said it is “massively different” when it comes to the characteristics but finds it “refreshing” to learn something different.
“Well, firstly, they were very well built and massively different in characteristics. So that’s been a, rather than, just jump into a different car to this car and having it exactly the same. It’s been refreshing to have something different to learn.
“[There are] different ways in which you have to drive the car, different requirements to how you approach corners, the engine has a different tone, a different feel, [and] different drivability.
“I’ve been driving Mercedes for so long which has such a great power unit and it’s great to see that Ferrari also have a great power unit.
“I’m again spending time with the engineers from the engine department and learning of how the process that they take to for reliability and power. That’s a process in itself, but it’s so far it’s been really great.”
The 40-year-old ended the last testing session by going sixth-fastest yesterday after completing 47 laps. Hamilton and Ferrari F1 teammate Charles Leclerc racked up a combination of 1,460 kilometres in mileage during the pre-season testing.
