Seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton has reckoned that he has been in a steady back-and-forth with Ferrari’s engineers over automotive setup selections, revealing that he has pushed the Scuderia for extra experimentation work than the Italian outfit has been used to.
Lewis Hamilton introduced his shock exit from Mercedes final February. Whereas the announcement got here forward of the 2024 F1 season, the British driver accomplished the season with the Brackley-based outfit.
The seven-time F1 champion has since joined Ferrari, and he has already accomplished the opening ten races of the 2025 F1 season. Though he secured pole place for the Shanghai F1 Dash which he went on to win in a dominant trend, he has struggled for one-lap tempo since.
Explaining his integration within the setting of Ferrari which could be very totally different from what he skilled at Mercedes, Hamilton has revealed that he has been in a steady back-and-forth with the Scuderia’s engineers over automotive setup selections, reckoning that he has pushed the the Italian crew for extra experimentation work.
“I’m simply making an attempt to… We’ve not had any upgrades or something like that so it’s the identical automotive for fairly a while now with the identical bundle every weekend.”
“I’m simply difficult the fellows and continuously battling the engineers, asking questions of it. They set issues up, and are like ‘that is how we at all times do it’.
“And I’m like, ‘effectively, what about this?’ And we work on making an attempt issues, and little by little, we’re making progress,” Hamilton added.
Though Ferrari has displayed an encouraging long-run tempo in a lot of the races for the reason that begin of the season, the Scuderia has struggled for one-lap qualifying efficiency which has usually disadvantaged Hamilton and his team-mate Charles Leclerc of combating for prime locations on the sharp finish of the sector.
Pressed on to disclose what he thinks Ferrari have to do with a view to get right into a place wherein they’ll battle with the field-leading McLaren, Mercedes and Pink Bull outfit, Hamilton gave a transparent reply.
“We’ve improved in our qualifying from Monaco onwards, which is constructive, however finally we’d like upgrades. We’d like an improve to have the ability to combat the fellows up entrance.”
“It’s my first half of the yr in a brand new crew. It’s fascinating to see how totally different groups work and function. There’s been occasions in my profession the place you’ve had a complete bunch of upgrades very, very early on within the season and also you plough forward very early, then you definately cease and taper off.”
“And, you recognize, right here, it’s additionally the final yr of this technology of vehicles and more durable to search out efficiency.”
Signing off with a phrase for his expectation for the all-new technical rules that may come into impact in 2026, Hamilton famous: “The very fact is, with this automotive hopefully we are able to nonetheless combat for a second within the Constructors’, that will be nice. However I need a automotive that may win subsequent yr, in order that’s precedence.”
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