Lewis Hamilton’s first season at Ferrari is attracting attention from all corners of the world.
The Australian Grand Prix will host Lewis Hamilton’s third Formula 1 debut after his successful starts with McLaren and Mercedes.
Hamilton has won in Melbourne twice and featured on the podium on 10 occasions, something he would love to repeat during his first outing for Ferrari.
However, Hamilton is entering one of the closest seasons in Formula 1 and has an additional hurdle to overcome compared to many of his rivals who have continued with the same team.
Hamilton has gone to extensive lengths to integrate at Ferrari and is working hard alongside his new race engineer Riccardo Adami to learn all about the new procedures and processes compared to his time at Mercedes.
Teammate Charles Leclerc will want to prove that he’s capable of challenging the seven-time world champion but starts 2025 with the small advantage of understanding his car better than Hamilton currently does.
Given Hamilton’s incredible standing within Formula 1, he’s by far the biggest talking point going into the first race this season.
Martin Brundle has made a bold prediction about Hamilton’s upcoming campaign while former world champion Damon Hill is worried Hamilton has lost something after nearly 20 years in the sport.
The latest former driver to provide his analysis of Hamilton’s start to life is Japanese star Shinji Nakano.
In an interview with as-web.jp, Nakano explained what he saw from Hamilton’s running in pre-season testing that suggests he might have a tough start to life with Ferrari.
Shinji Nakano spotted Lewis Hamilton ‘having trouble’ with 2025 Ferrari F1 car in testing
Nakano was reflecting on testing in Bahrain and when discussing Hamilton’s three days in the desert, he said: “Of the transferees, Lewis Hamilton is attracting the most attention.
“Hamilton recorded the second-fastest time overall after Sainz in the pre-season test, but from what I saw of his driving, he seemed to be having trouble with the Ferrari car.
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“Ferrari’s new car, the SF-25, seemed to still have the slightly peaky behaviour that was present in the previous year’s car.
“Of course, I don’t know what kind of driving plan Ferrari had for the test. Looking at the car’s movements alone, I didn’t think that Ferrari’s peakiness had disappeared easily.
“I think that from here, including Hamilton’s own driving, they will make adjustments and refine the car, but I get the impression that it will be a difficult start.”
Ferrari aiming to continue their strong record at the Australian Grand Prix
Nakano only raced in Formula 1 for two seasons but scored points on two occasions for Prost in his debut season in 1997, although he was outperformed by teammates Olivier Panis and Jarno Trulli.
A second season with Minardi followed in 1998 but he failed to add to his career tally before moving on to race in CART and IndyCar.
While Nakano isn’t the highest-calibre driver to be critiquing Hamilton, he appears to have a point.
Hamilton requested a change to his Ferrari not seen in a decade as part of his preparations to give him the best chance of succeeding in Melbourne.
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Ferrari are the most successful team at the Australian Grand Prix with Carlos Sainz adding to their tally of victories last season.
Leclerc will be desperate to start the season on the front foot and halt any momentum Hamilton hopes to build up given the interest in his first campaign with Ferrari.
There are half a dozen drivers outside of the Scuderia who will hope they can burst Hamilton and Ferrari’s bubble at Albert Park and get off to a winning start.
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