Lewis Hamilton only has a few days left to prepare before he makes his competitive Ferrari debut.
The Australian Grand Prix has witnessed some brilliant Lewis Hamilton performances over the years and will be desperate to start his Ferrari career in the perfect way.
Hamilton has won in Melbourne twice, but not since 2015 and this season is expected to be closer than ever.
McLaren head to Australia as the favourites but it’s yet to be seen whether Ferrari, Red Bull or even Mercedes were hiding some performance during pre-season testing in Bahrain.
Hamilton got plenty of miles under his belt in Bahrain but missed out on a crucial race simulation run last Friday due to a technical issue.
The seven-time world champion has been working tirelessly in the simulator and done every run possible during the winter to learn more about Ferrari’s procedures, processes and the intricacies of their cars, such as getting to grips with a new power unit and different brakes.
Hamilton has been doing long hours at the factory to learn more about the team and even practice his Italian so that he can communicate with his new colleagues better, even though they primarily speak English.
Karun Chandhok was in Bahrain analysing testing and shared his insights on Instagram.
He noticed something in Hamilton’s data that suggests he could have a much better time at Ferrari than he did during his final years with Mercedes.
Lewis Hamilton looked ‘energized and reinvigorated’ during Ferrari testing
Reflecting on the three days of running at the Bahrain International Circuit, Chandhok said: “Ferrari are the big story coming into the season, obviously with Lewis joining them and everywhere we go, people want to know how is Lewis going to get on.
“Well, the first two days were pretty encouraging. He looked really comfortable with the car, looking at some of the telemetry traces, Lewis’ strength has always been under braking and he was really able to hammer the brake pedal, [and] get that rotation into the car.
“You could see just when you overlaid some of the data with George Russell, for example, Lewis was able to attack the entry under braking, in a way that he maybe hasn’t always been able to do in recent times. So that was encouraging.
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“The last day when the temperature came up, looked more challenging.
“The car didn’t look particularly well balanced, and then they had some sort of reliability issue so we didn’t get to see Lewis do a race run.
“We saw Charles do a race run on the second day and they were very similar to what we saw from Mercedes.
“So, I think slightly behind McLaren, but Ferrari will be very similar to Mercedes, but the good news is, Lewis seems comfortable already, energized and reinvigorated.”
Charles Leclerc struggling more than Lewis Hamilton with Ferrari’s 2025 F1 car
Hamilton’s new teammate Charles Leclerc should have a distinct advantage over the multiple world champion due to his previous time at Ferrari.
The Monegasque driver was sensational towards the end of last season and his victories in Monaco and at Monza will live long in the memory.
However, the technical changes Ferrari have made to their 2025 car might not suit him particularly well.
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Leclerc’s braking technique has been devalued by Ferrari based on the three days of testing in Bahrain which was one of his main strengths.
He wasn’t a fan of the balance of the car and given he’s relied on his unbelievable one-lap pace in recent years, any loss of confidence is going to have a detrimental effect.
Hamilton will know that getting the better of Leclerc gives him a great chance of challenging for the drivers’ championship.
However, he needs to make sure that any changes made to help Leclerc don’t negatively impact his driving style as well.
