Lewis Hamilton has delivered his early verdict on the Ferrari upgrades introduced this weekend in Bahrain.
The Maranello outfit has brought its first substantial upgrade package to the SF-25 Formula 1 car, which centres around a new floor.
The team has had a rocky start to the year despite Hamilton celebrating his first win in red in the Chinese sprint race. Both the British driver and his team-mate Charles Leclerc were disqualified from the Chinese Grand Prix. Hamilton for excessive plank wear, and Leclerc for not reaching minimum weight requirements.
While speaking to the media after the second practice session under the lights of the Bahrain International Circuit, the seven-time champion seemed more positive than before the weekend began.
“The upgrade’s definitely working,” Hamilton said.
“A big thank you to everyone back home working so far hard on bringing the upgrades.
“It’s never an easy thing. There’s a lot of work that goes on in the wind tunnel and a lot of work that goes on fabricating, putting together these floors. It’s just good to see that we’re taking steps forward.
“We’re trying to extract more from it. I hope that we can make the right steps overnight into tomorrow.”
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
The second practice session, which is more representative of the conditions for qualifying later today, saw Leclerc put in the fourth fastest time and Hamilton the eighth. However, it is always worth noting that teams run different setups and programmes during practice sessions.
Team principal Fred Vasseur addressed the challenging start to the year to F1.com, stating:
“I’m used [to it] because the last two years we started like this.
“For sure it is not ideal and I would prefer to win the first one. But we don’t need to change the approach from last year as we are almost in the same situation, perhaps a bit worse in terms of pace, and the reaction of the team was very, very strong.
“We worked as a team, made small step by small step and we have to keep exactly the same approach, but for sure it is not ideal.”
