Ferrari insider opens up on working with Lewis Hamilton: “There’s a reason he won so much”

Former Ferrari test driver and current brand ambassador Marc Gene has opened up on what it’s like to work with seven-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton.

The British driver joined the Maranello outfit at the beginning of the year and immediately began ingraining himself in the team alongside team-mate Charles Leclerc. Although he is still adapting to the team and car, he secured his first victory in red at the Chinese sprint race.

The sprint race victory was, unfortunately, one of the few highlights for Ferrari so far this year. Leclerc and Hamilton finished the season opener in Australia in eighth and tenth, and both were disqualified from the Chinese Grand Prix for not reaching the minimum weight and excessive plank wear, respectively. After a fourth-place finish for Leclerc and seventh-place for Hamilton in Japan, the team is currently fourth in the standings with just 35 points.

During an appearance on the Beyond the Grid podcast, Gene has opened up on how Hamilton has been integrating himself into the team and what impact he has had so far. He explained:

“It’s very early days with Lewis. He won the Sprint in China, which was amazing. I’m just getting to know him, but no one can doubt his talent. He’s very experienced and you can really see he knows what he needs.

“That’s why, from Melbourne to China, he made a huge improvement because coming from another team, it really is not easy. With the current Formula 1 that you cannot test, it’s so hard to change teams and to get used to the dynamics, to get used to the steering wheel. That takes time.

“But already in the briefings, when he talks, you can really tell that he’s really giving some very important information and then he’s very exceptional in tyre management. I look at the telemetry and you see some things that he’s very exceptional. I know people say he won so much because he had the best team. Now that I’ve seen him, there’s a reason why he won so much.”

Commenting on the pressure that comes with driving for Ferrari, Gene added:

“There’s a lot of pressure at Ferrari. There’s no other team in the world that you have to cope with so much pressure, but as a driver, he’s going to experience things that he never experienced before, probably his debut in Fiorano, to see so many people that they had to close the roads. This at the end of the day is nice.

“He has a very good team around him, but I don’t think it’s difficult for him. We are making sure that he adapts to the Ferrari world very fast. We are very proud at Ferrari that he chose not to retire from Formula 1 without living his dream of being part of the Ferrari family. I think that’s part of Ferrari’s DNA. Everybody dreams one day of driving a Ferrari.”

The team looks to improve at the Bahrain Grand Prix this weekend.