Australian GP: Lewis Hamilton ‘grateful’ to finish first race for Ferrari
MELBOURNE — Lewis Hamilton was grateful to finish the dramatic Australian Grand Prix on his debut for Ferrari, and said he felt like he was thrown into the “deep, deep end.”
Hamilton finished 10th at Albert Park — two places behind teammate Charles Leclerc — as a late Ferrari tyre gamble in the rapidly changing conditions did not quite work out.
“Definitely a big crash course today,” Hamilton told reporters after the race. “I’m just grateful I kept it out of the wall.
He added: “It felt like I was in the deep, deep end today. Just everything is new, from the first time I’m driving this car in the rain, the car was behaving a lot different to what I’ve experienced in the past. The power unit, all the steering functions, all the things that are thrown to you, you’re trying to juggle all these new things.”
The thrilling Melbourne opener took place amid constantly changing weather conditions and featured three Safety Car periods.
In the closing stages, Hamilton and Leclerc had opted to stay out on dry tyres as it started to rain again. Both eventually pitted for intermediate wet tyres as the rain worsened.
After realising he had fallen down the order, Hamilton radioed Ferrari: “We missed a big opportunity there.”
“Unfortunately, at the end they said it was just a short shower, so I was like, I’m going to hold it out, and the rest of the track was dry, so I was like, I’m going to stick it out as long as I can and keep it on the track. They didn’t say more was coming. And all of a sudden, more came.
“So I think it was just lacking that bit of information at the end. But yeah, I didn’t have any confidence today in [the car], unfortunately. I’m going to make some changes next week to the car, to the setup.”
Sunday’s race was Hamilton’s first with new race engineer Riccardo Adami, after a lengthy and hugely popular stint working with Peter Bonnington at Mercedes.
At one stage during the grand prix, Hamilton had asked Adami to give him less information over the radio and let him focus on the task at hand. “I think Riccardo did a really good job. We’re learning about each other, and yeah, bit by bit, after this, we’ll download and go through all the comments, things I said and vice-versa.
“Generally, I’m not one that likes a lot of information in the race, unless I need it, I’ll ask for it. He did his best today, and we’ll move forwards for sure.” Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur said the communication will only improve as the two work together more often.
“It was the first race, the first time that we have to communicate between the pitwall and the car. We can do a better job and know each other more, for sure it was not a clean one at all, the strategy was difficult and we need to find a better way to communicate between the car and the pitwall but we will learn from race one and it is not an issue.”
Source: espn.com