Lewis Hamilton has stated that he is “slowly bonding” with Ferrari’s 2025 Formula 1 car, as he topped the morning session on his second outing of pre-season testing.
Hamilton is gearing up to embark upon his maiden campaign with Ferrari having brought an end to his record partnership with Mercedes at the end of last season.
The Briton endured a challenging time in his final year with the German marque as he struggled to gel with an inconsistent W15 car and lost to team-mate George Russell.
But while that has prompted scepticism about whether he will be able to regain his raw speed in a new environment, Hamilton is satisfied with how things are progressing.
Hamilton’s second run in the SF-25 in Bahrain saw him end the session with the benchmark time, though Williams’ Carlos Sainz, who he replaced, later eclipsed that.
Nevertheless, the seven-time F1 champion expressed that he is starting to get to grips with Ferrari’s latest creation, the car that he hopes might deliver him a record eighth title.
“I am really enjoying the car. We’re slowly bonding,” he said.
“Yesterday was a so-so day, just OK. But we got through all our run-plan. I was not doing set-up changes or directing where I want the car to go.
“Today was a bit more getting to explore a bit my interaction with my engineer.”
Ferrari hasn’t encountered a ‘bad surprise’ with SF-25
Charles Leclerc took over past the one-hour break as Ferrari divided the driving duties between the two again and he slotted into third, 0.052 seconds behind Hamilton.
Speaking prior to his stint in the car, the Monegasque revealed that the Maranello-based squad hasn’t encountered a “bad surprise” with the team’s revised challenger
“It’s only testing,” he cautioned. “Everyone is hiding their true performance but the feeling is pretty good. No bad surprise, but too early to judge [the] performance.”
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