There is a lot of anticipation for Ferrari this year given Lewis Hamilton is attempting to achieve his eighth world championship with the Italian team.
Hamilton has enjoyed a lot of track time behind the wheel of his SF-25 during Bahrain testing, completing a total of 70 laps on the opening day.
Some within the paddock felt underwhelmed by Hamilton’s first day of testing with Ferrari, given he only set the fifth quickest time.
The Briton was likely checking to see if everything worked as intended before settling into a run plan for the day, with Ferrari being one of the main teams to bring a lot of sets of the C3 tyre.
Ferrari’s SF-25 is an evolution of their 2024 challenger which took five victories at the hands of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, and the team has fitted a number of parts in a bid to beat Red Bull and McLaren.
One of these was highlighted by F1 technical expert Sam Collins, who pointed to a specific area that ‘everyone has been talking about’ in the paddock when speaking on F1 TV.
Ferrari sidepods have got ‘everyone’ talking in F1 paddock
Ferrari has made one major change to its front suspension this year, which should help Hamilton get to grips with the car easier.
There is also another significant change that Ferrari engineers have made to their car concerning the cooling package according to Collins.
“This sidepod design has proven to be hugely influential. The one that everyone is talking about is the Ferrari,” said Collins.
“Ferrari hasn’t opted to split the two ducts in the way Red Bull has, but it has very much the same ‘P’ shape and upper element or overbite system, I suspect that’s changed the cooling layout in the sidepods themselves but we haven’t seen it with the bodywork off.”
Possible Ferrari issue spotted for Lewis Hamilton in high-speed corners
Hamilton completed a total of 70 laps on the opening day of testing, which is roughly 120% of the race distance for the 57-lap Bahrain Grand Prix.
Only three other drivers posted more laps on the board, two of whom were rookies Andrea Kimi Antonelli (78 laps) and Oliver Bearman (72 laps).
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It is clear that he is trying to get as much running as he can, especially given Hamilton will be unfamiliar with a lot of the specifics of the Ferrari car.
Former F1 strategist Bernie Collins also pointed out an issue Hamilton may have in high speed corners, with a detailed lap comparison with Fernando Alonso showing that Ferrari was lagging behind the Aston Martin.
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