Lewis Hamilton admits he is still “pinching himself” as he heads towards his first race for the iconic Ferrari Formula One team. Lewis made the controversial switch from his Mercedes home having failed to negotiate the long term deal he wanted with the silver arrows.

Ferrari have dome everything in their power too ensure Hamilton’s induction has been as complete as possible, to the extent the team has used all its ‘filming days’ and testing of previous cars mileage allowance before the season has even begun.

Its more usual for an F1 team to retain some of these testing opportunities for when they deliver a big upgrade during the early part of the season, yet Ferrari believed they were better spent on acclimatising Hamilton alongside his new team mate Charles Leclerc who is in his sixth year with the Maranello outfit.

 

 

 

Hamilton like a ‘kid in a sweet shop’

At at Ferrari promotional event this week, Hamilton was like a kid in a sweet shop as he told those attending: “Now embarking on something brand new, for me. And something I didn’t think would happen when I turned 40. And I’m still pinching myself.

Next week when I get to the race, I’m going to be starting a Grands Prix, in red. Like, wow. It’s… I don’t have the words to really explain just how excited I am. But I’m trying to just stay cool and calm, but for sure, arriving in red (at Melbourne) is going to be cool.’”

The surprise move made by Hamilton raised eyebrows in  certain quarters of the paddock, with many believing Hamilton could in no way match the achievements of Ferrari’s protege Charles Leclerc. Leclerc is quick over one lap and despite his relatively meagre eight Grand Prix wins, he has 26 pole positions to his name.

Qualifying was one of Hamilton’s greatest strengths during his glory years with Mercedes, but he was royally thrashed by George Russell, 19-5 in his final year at Mercedes.

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Hamilton hasn’t enjoyed ‘ground effect’ F1 cars

Lewis has not adapted well to the new ground effect style F1 cars. His biggest problem has been under braking, where the loss of rear end grip has made the seven times world champion wary at the point of the corner entry. This of course costs a huge amount of lap time and nothing Mercedes could do with their car designs over the past three seasons has been able to solve this problem for Hamilton.

Yet at Ferrari there are signs that Lewis may be experiencing a renaissance. Despite his spin in the first outing in a Ferrari in Fiorano, Hamilton has looked more confident in the SF-25 in all aspects of his driving, than in any of his three previous Mercedes’ offerings.

Sky F1 expert analysis, Karun Chandhok, has been pouring over the data which can out of testing and believes there are signs Hamilton may have a much better time at Ferrari than his farewell years at Mercedes.

Chandhok has now posted on his Instagram his reflections of the three days running at the Bahrain International Circuit. “Ferrari are the big story coming into the season, obviously with Lewis joining them and everywhere we go, people want to know how is Lewis going to get on.

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Russell data comparison now favourable

“Well, the first two days were pretty encouraging. He looked really comfortable with the car, looking at some of the telemetry traces, Lewis’ strength has always been under braking and he was really able to hammer the brake pedal, [and] get that rotation into the car.”

This will be music to the Hamfosi who even turned on Mercedes during Hamilton’s travails, with many accusing Toto Wolff and the team of favouring George Russell. Chandhok has done some analysis of the data produced by Russell and Hamilton at the test which reveals his move to ferrari may well have been inspired.

“You could see just when you overlaid some of the data with George Russell, for example, Lewis was able to attack the entry under braking, in a way that he maybe hasn’t always been able to do in recent times. So that was encouraging,” Chandhok adds.

Day three of the test when the temperatures rose the task in hand appeared to be more difficult for Ferrari. The car looked to have lost some if its previous nice balance and reliability issues prevented Hamilton from completing any race simulation long runs.

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Leclerc more downbeat over SF-25

“We saw Charles do a race run on the second day and they were very similar to what we saw from Mercedes,” observes Chandhok. “So, I think slightly behind McLaren, but Ferrari will be very similar to Mercedes, but the good news is, Lewis seems comfortable already, energised and reinvigorated.”

Leclerc has long been the darling of Ferrari and even though his contribution over four seasons alongside Carlos Sainz was only marginally better than the Spaniard’s, he retains the magic dust when he’s on it, particularly over one lap.

Yet the all new 2025 Ferrari car may not suit Leclerc as much as he would have hoped. Come the end of testing the contrast between the two Ferrari drivers was stark as Leclerc spoke of an “unexpected difficulty” with cornering while his body language appeared tense.

Hamilton by comparison was in stark positivity mode as he felt the SF-25 was giving him what he lacked at Mercedes. Leclerc by contrast said the car felt “limited” and he was unable to brake as late as previously which clearly works against one of the Monegasque’s greatest strengths.

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Italian media conspiracy theories

The Italian media were quick to suggest the Ferrari car deign has been moved towards Hamilton’s driving style, something which may detract from the needs of Leclerc.

Charles concluded the three days testing comparing this year’s Ferrari offering to the car he famously claimed victory in at Monaco and Monza. “For the moment we are working a lot to try to improve the balance because we have struggled a bit over the last two days. We’ll see in Melbourne…”

With McLaren expected to be setting the early pace for the coming season, Ferrari and Mercedes appear fairly close in terms of pace. Mercedes however did benefit from the cold weather in testing where their cars have traditionally done better as in Las Vegas last year with a 1-2 finish.

Australia is also an outlier in terms of a track layout. Remarkably Hamilton in his glittering career has won just twice at Albert Park and his team mate wo the first time out there in a Ferrari, but was forced to play second fiddle to Carlos Sainz last year on the comeback of the Spaniard from having his appendix removed.

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Red Bull Racing rethink over Lawson role

Liam Lawson is stepping into the “hardest job in sport” if Christian Horner is to be believed and the track record of Max Verstappen’s team mates would tend to bear this out. Only Daniel Ricciardo has been able to beat his Dutch team mate consistently, but then a young Max was yet learning his trade.

The New Zealand driver who has stepped into the shoes of Sergio Pérez has a big ask ahead of him. Across the four seasons in which Verstappen has won his drivers’ titles, the experienced Mexican driver won just five Grand Prix and came runner up inn the drivers’ title race once.

Meanwhile Max was winning 53 Grand Prix and even when Checo finished second to him in the championship he was more than 300 points behind the world champion. Red Bull attempted to inspire Perez early last summer by handing him a two year extension deal to race with the team, yet Sergio’s form continued to decline with him finishing eight behind all the drivers for the other top three teams…READ MORE