Bad news for Lewis Hamilton as an underwhelming F1 Australian GP run predicted by former driver
Lewis Hamilton's start to life at Ferrari is not going to be as straightforward as the car has retained some of its peaky nature from last season. That's the view of former F1 driver Shinji Nakano. The 7x world champion shocked the world last season when he announced his switch from Mercedes to the Italian squad.
Though the move certainly has its challenges, what stands out is the fact that the driver is now part of the most iconic team in F1 history and pursuing the goal of becoming an 8-time world champion. As soon as Lewis Hamilton joined the team, the fanfare has been something to adore as the driver has continued to garner attention like no other driver.
At the same time, what matters the most is what he does on the track. For Lewis Hamilton to succeed, he has to adapt to the Italian way of going about things. He has to adapt to a completely different setup and, at the same time, get used to a car that is essentially not built by his input.
If he is unable to do that, he would struggle to keep up with Charles Leclerc. That's the point that quite a few people have made already when talking about Lewis Hamilton's adaptation process, and former F1 racer Nakano corroborates the same as he wrote in his as-web.jp column,
“Of the transferees, Lewis Hamilton is attracting the most attention. Hamilton had the second-fastest time overall after [Carlos] Sainz in the pre-season test, but his performance suggests that he is struggling with the Ferrari car. Ferrari’s new SF-25 car seemed to retain some of the slightly peaky behaviour that the previous year’s car had shown."
He added,
“Naturally, we don’t know what Ferrari’s driving plan was for the test. Looking at the car’s behaviour alone, I didn’t think that Ferrari’s peakiness had disappeared easily. I’m sure Hamilton will adjust the car from here, including his own driving, but I have the impression that the entrance to this process will not be easy.”'
Paddock veteran echoes Nakano's concern about Lewis Hamilton's start to life at Ferrari
Paddock veteran Gary Anderson felt somewhat similar to Nakano as he felt that Lewis Hamilton needs a benign car to extract the best from it. The Ferrari has not appeared to be benign during the pre-season test and if that is anything to go by, he would struggle early on as he tries to adapt to the new environment.
Anderson wrote in his column for the Telegraph:
“From 2022-2024 he struggled to varying degrees with an unpredictable Mercedes, and last year was the low point. Although he won two races it was comfortably – or should that be uncomfortably – the worst season of his career. It is still early days, but on first impressions it does not look as though the new Ferrari is a great upgrade on last year’s Mercedes W15."
He added,
“From the early running the SF-25 does not appear to be as driver friendly as I would expect. Hamilton likes a benign car from which he can extract the most from his talent and minimise lap time. It did not look that benign [in testing]. When Hamilton drove the car it was hitting the ground quite hard and bouncing and this probably caused him to have a few minor off-track moments."
Lewis Hamilton definitely has a challenge in front of him early in the year and it will be interesting to see how he fares at Ferrari in the red overalls.