Ferrari re-train Hamilton on his braking technique = Lewis Hamilton is settling into Formula One life with Ferrari but his latest outing testing in a previous year’s car ended badly. Fred Vasseur has planned an extensive familiarising programme from the seven times world champion which included a run last week in Fiorano and three days of testing this week at the Circuit de Catalunya.
The hope is by the time the team’s arrive in Australia for the first round the 2024 F1 season, Lewis will feel at home in the Ferrari garage and that he and his engineers will have developed a solid relationship meaning the focus is on the performance of the car, rather than struggling through communication issues.
The ex-Mercedes driver was allegedly offered the home of Enzo Ferrari as his residence when spending time in Italy, if the Italian media are to be believed, although Hamilton refused to confirm this. Ironically, Hamilton’s testing of previous Ferrari’s has been limited by a protest made by his own team who were previously unhappy with others using this allowance to extremes.
Ferrari nobble themselves
Since Ferrari’s protest, current full time F1 drivers are now allowed only a share of the 1000km each team is now allocated for TPC , young aspiring F1 drivers are exempt from this limit.
Yesterday in Barcelona, Ferrari decided ton split the day’s testing between their drivers, with Hamilton taking the morning session and Charles Leclerc the afternoon. Yet early in the day, around 11am according to Spanish onlookers, Hamilton smashed his SF-23 into the wall in the revised final sector, where the chicane has been removed and the run off gravel area before the barrier is short.
The Ferrari F1 car was significantly damaged such that the afternoon session for Charles Leclerc was cancelled. Whilst Ferrari played down the incident La Republic and Sky Italia are reporting Lewis was testing a new pedal arrangement following the discomfort he felt in the car last week in Fiorano.
Further there have been rumours that Hamilton is struggling to adapt to the Brembo braking system used by the Scuderia having become so accustomed with Carbon Industries braking materials during his twelve years at Mercedes.
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Other stories in the Italian media have suggested Lewis had requested to use Carbon Industries brakes on his 2025 Ferrari, but Spanish publication Marca reports a source close to Brembo has denied this.
As Hamilton’s season drew to a miserable close in 2024, Tot Wolff revealed his star driver has struggled with braking ever since the new ground effect design F1 cars arrived in 2022. “It’s just this generation of cars, particularly how the car is now. It’s just something that he likes, he’s a late braker, he carries a lot of speed on the entry to the corner and the car doesn’t take it. You can see him inking out, taking more and more time intellectually, and trying to find more performance,” Wolff revealed in Qatar.
Now it seems Ferrari are giving the seven times world champion some coaching on how to adapt to the braking techniques required in the current breed of F1 cars as Italian source Virgilio Motori, claims Hamilton has been working on perfecting the ‘trail braking’ technique which is better for Ferrari’s Brembo setup.
The last Ferrari driver to crash on debut with the team during private testing sessions was Kimi Raikkonen in 2014. He went on to struggle that year against Fernando Alonso before Sebastian Vettel arrived the following season.
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Lewis’ history of new team crashes
Hamilton ironically has crashed F1 cars before the season began for each of the three teams he has now raced for. Prior to the official pre-season testing in Jerez back in 2013, Hamilton found himself in the barriers at the end of the back straight.
Even as he was making his rookie debut with McLaren back in 2007, Lewis found the wall in spectacular fashion. He lost control of his McLaren MP4/21 on the Valencia pit straight before hitting the barrier at 185mph.
The recently retired Sky F1 pundit and 1996 world champion, Damon Hill poked fun at Hamilton on his instagram account. Reacting to the various testing crashes during Lewis’ career, hill posted in jest, “A crash bore.”
Meanwhile Ferrari believe they understand the reason behind Hamilton’s crash in Barcelona. According to AutoRacer the team believe the shunt was caused by a “bump in the circuit” which unsettled the car as Lewis hurtled towards the final turn.
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That said, Barcelona is one of the smoother surfaces the F1 calendar visits and if bumps are now going to be a concern for Lewis, there are plenty more out there for him to navigate.
Hamilton’s move to Ferrari has been the news of this winter as fans and F1 pundits alike wait with baited breath to see how this new partnership unfolds. This move for previous F1 champions like Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel didn’t end well, although Alonso came within a whisker of a third drivers’ championship in 2010.
Speaking at the AutoSport awards this week, the Red Bull team boss Christian Horner previewed the year ahead promising fans a “stellar year” with the top four teams all in contention. With this being the final year of the current set of f1 car design regulations, the teams should converge even closer and Horner has earmarked Mercedes to be the ‘dark horse.’
Turning to the move by Lewis to Ferrari, Horner described it as great for the sport and despite his long term rivalry with the Italian F1 team he called the developing partnership “box office” in every sense of the term.
Lewis will return to Barcelona next week when he will take part in a Pirelli test driving the 2024 Ferrari which almost overhauled McLaren to win last year’s constructors’ title. This is likely to be the closest Hamilton will get to in terms of understanding the feel of the car he will race this year. His first drive in the SF-25 will be a shakedown filming day in Fiorano on February 19th.
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The doors of the FIA headquarters in the Place de Concorde in Paris has in recent times become something of a revolving door. Mohammed Ben Sulayem since his arrival as president of F1’s governing body has burned through three F1 race directors and a host of other senior staffers as rumours persist surrounding his negative leadership style.
The rally driving Emerarti inherited something of a financial mess when elected as president of the FI in 2021, much of which snow resolved. Yet his apparent desire to be front and central in all things F1 have led experienced commentators to suggest he is concerned about the limelight the CEO of F1 appointed by Liberty Media, receives.
Stefano Domenicali who runs the commercial interests of the sport for Liberty Media, is of course a well known F1 figure. He was the last team principal when Ferrari won an F1 world constructors’ title the season Lewis Hamilton claimed his maiden drivers’ championship…READ MORE ON THIS STORY
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
