Lewis Hamilton lastly ended his lengthy wait to attain his first podium end for Ferrari within the Chinese language Grand Prix.
However the 78th Ferrari driver to take part on this planet championship took longer than any of his predecessors to succeed in the podium in a grand prix.
This didn’t appear like being the case when Hamilton joined Ferrari a little bit over 12 months in the past. He led on his debut in Australia and gained the dash race on the subsequent spherical.
Ferrari’s season went off the rails quickly afterwards. However although Charles Leclerc reached the podium seven occasions, his new workforce mate didn’t.
Hamilton got here shut at occasions. He was simply over a second away from a podium end in his first begin on Ferrari’s residence floor at Imola. He repeated that outcome at his own residence spherical, plus in Austria and Austin. But it surely was in Mexico, the place a penalty led to a pissed off eighth place end, that he in all probability had his greatest likelihood to complete on the rostrum, as he repeatedly challenged Ferrari over why Leclerc had been allowed to cross him off the observe at first.
It was clear from the outset of the brand new season that Ferrari have a way more aggressive automotive on their palms this yr. Hamilton gained on Leclerc within the second stint of the race and completed a little bit over half a second behind his third-placed workforce mate.
In China, Hamilton and Leclerc scrapped over second place for a very long time, although finally needed to give greatest to George Russell’s Mercedes. Hamilton prevailed this time, nonetheless, and at last stood on the rostrum in his twenty sixth look in a grand prix for Ferrari.
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Each one of many 77 Ferrari drivers who got here earlier than him both reached the rostrum sooner, or didn’t final lengthy sufficient on the workforce to take action. Leclerc solely needed to wait two races for his first and Hamilton’s predecessor Carlos Sainz Jnr did it in 5. Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen all stood on the rostrum on their debuts for Ferrari.
The final Ferrari driver to begin greater than 10 races earlier than reaching the rostrum was Gerhard Berger. He joined Ferrari in 1987, and earlier than ending second within the Portuguese Grand Prix that yr posted seven retirements (largely technical in nature) and 4 fourth-place finishes.
Ivan Capelli had the longest Ferrari profession with out ever ending on the rostrum. He was proven the door two races earlier than the top of the 1992 season. Ferrari’s F92A was an uncompetitive and unreliable machine, although Capelli’s workforce mate Jean Alesi dragged it to 3rd place twice.
Gilles Villeneuve and Didier Pironi – Ferrari’s driver pairing of 1981 and the primary a part of 1982 – each had lengthy waits for his or her first podiums. Pironi took the longest, ready 19 races to face on the highest step at Imola in 1982 – that fateful ‘stolen’ win from his workforce mate. Villeneuve had taken a lot of the 1978 season to realize his first podium end for Ferrari.
Inevitably, a big motive why Hamilton took so lengthy to attain his first podium end for Ferrari is that seasons are longer now than they was once. Nonetheless, for a driver to hitch Ferrari and take over a yr to realize their first podium end is a uncommon factor. Whether or not this statistic seems to be an uncommon footnote to the success which adopted for Hamilton at Ferrari stays to be seen.
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