Anthony Hamilton vowed that he and his son Lewis are ready to “rebuild” Ferrari into a title-winning team following the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix.
A tricky adaptation to Ferrari in mixed conditions at the Albert Park Circuit, coupled with strategy miscues resigned Hamilton to a lowly 10th-place finish on his debut with the Scuderia.
Despite the underwhelming result, Hamilton’s father was in a punchy mood in conversation with broadcasters after the chequered flag, making a vow to Ferrari’s loyal Tifosi.
“As far as we’re concerned, we’re fighters, just like Ferrari, which is a world champion team,” Hamilton Sr told Canal+ post-race.
“We’re going to rebuild this team, not just for us and for Ferrari, but for Italy and all the fans.”
Ferrari has gone without a Constructors’ title since 2008 with its last Drivers’ Championship success coming a year earlier with Kimi Raikkonen.
While the Hamilton/Ferrari debut didn’t go as planned, the seven-time world champion’s father added to Sky Sports F1 “We’re just really pleased we got this race over and done with and we finished it. That was the most important thing.
“With so few laps and time in the car it was always going to be difficult but we’re quite pleased.
“It’s been a learning process, we learnt a lot about the car, what we need to do, what we need to change and where need to go with it.
“It would have been great to come here, been on the pace and been up the front, but that might have been too easy.
“We like things difficult so we’re going to work hard.”
Hamiltons happy with gap to Charles Leclerc
Hamilton Sr. also touched on the importance of Charles Leclerc, predicting harmony between the new Ferrari teammates moving forward.
“Charles is a phenomenal drier and individual and I think as team-mates they’re going to work extremely well together and we are going to bring this team back to a world championship,” he said.
Hamilton was two-tenths shy of Leclerc in qualifying but wasn’t disheartened by that gap considering his acclimation has been taking longer than expected.
“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.”
READ MORE – Lewis Hamilton ‘grateful’ to keep Ferrari out of the wall in treacherous Australian GP
