Lewis Hamilton explained his deficit to Charles Leclerc in qualifying for the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix arose from him being further behind adapting to his Ferrari than he first thought.
It’s an entirely new experience for Hamilton at the Albert Park circuit this weekend, his first GP as a Ferrari driver.
Throughout the weekend Hamilton has been positive but acknowledged he’s got a lot to learn acclimating to a completely new feeling with the SF-25 compared to his past 12 seasons with Mercedes.
Ultimately, Saturday was a setback for Ferrari as Leclerc and Hamilton finished seventh and eighth respectively in qualifying.
A spin in the Q3 top-10 shootout exemplified that Hamilton has plenty of work to do getting to grips with his SF-25, but he was happy to get within almost two tenths of Leclerc, given his vast experience at Ferrari.
READ MORE – Charles Leclerc not threatened by Lewis Hamilton presence at Ferrari
“We’re just improving every single lap, session on session,” Hamilton told media including Motorsport Week on Saturday.
“Big learning curve this weekend. The car was so much different from the moment I left the pit lane.
“Just feeling so much different than I’ve ever experienced here. It’s been a lot slower process for me to really build confidence in the car.
“If you look at the high speed everywhere, I’ve been down all weekend. Charles just had it from the get go. From the minute he went out, he knew what the car does.
“For me, I was just building up to that through the weekend. I think I got a lot closer towards it to be that close to Charles in my first qualifying session in the car against a great qualifier.”
Ferrari is completely different to Hamilton’s previous F1 machines
Asked to explain what’s different about his new Ferrari, Hamilton reeled off several items.
“From braking, through corner balance, it’s a lot different to what I had,” he began.
“The mechanical balance shift that you have is much, much different to what I had in the previous car.
“The high speed balance, the low speed balance is quite a shift. She behaves a little bit differently,” he said.
Hamilton given Melbourne reality check
Asked how long it will take him to get on track with his Ferrari, Hamilton admitted that he figured heading into Melbourne that he was further along in his acclimation.
Instead, Melbourne has served as a reality check.
“Honestly, I thought I was further along than I was and then I got here,” he said.
“FP1, I was like, jeez, ‘I’ve still got a way to go’.
“There’s still a tonne of tools that are popping out like, ‘hey, what about this? I’ve never tried that. What does it do?’
“It’s one thing saying it, but actually going out and feeling it.
“I think we did some good work with trying to move the car forward,” Hamilton added.
“As I said, when you have a problem in the car and you come in, normally when you’ve got the experience you can say, ‘this is where I want to go with it, but I don’t know which tool to use at the moment.’
“I’m heavily reliant for the first time on my engineers.
“They’ve done a great job, but in the past I would say, ‘this is what I want, that setting, this setting,’ and I can’t do that anymore.”
READ MORE – Lewis Hamilton relishing profoundly new F1 Australian GP experience with Ferrari
