Lewis Hamlton has ‘no doubts’ over Ferrari potential amid tough start
Lewis Hamilton believes Ferrari faces more scrutiny than any other team on the Formula 1 grid, but remains convinced it will return to winning ways with enough time.
The seven-time world champion joined Ferrari from Mercedes over the winter, creating a huge wave of interest ahead of his first race for the team in Australia last month.
The performance of the car has not yet matched the hype of Hamilton’s arrival, with no podiums from the first four grands prix of the season save a sprint race win in China.
Asked if people outside the team have tried to “make a crisis” out of Ferrari’s start to the season, Hamilton said: “Yes — I mean, on one side it’s to be expected.
“It’s the greatest team in Formula 1 history, and it’s that special and, of course, there’s more clicks, there’s more stories that are written about it. And people have opinions, and it’s not always been smooth sailing.
“So I think just from my perspective, you can’t work with a team and change things overnight. And we’ve spent this time to really get to know each other. There are changes that are short term that we will do together — keep all the greatness and keep building the areas that we could be stronger in.
“And some of those could be short term and some of them are longer term. There’s so many great things within this team, and so we want to harness the energy and the passion that’s within the team. We also have to protect the team as well because the spotlight is more on this team than any other team.
“Everyone in this team really, their heart is so in it. We’re riding the rollercoaster ride up and down together. And I have no doubts that we will get to where we plan to be. It’s just going to take time.”
At last weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, Hamilton said he felt more comfortable with the Ferrari during the second stint of the race after adapting his driving style to the car’s demands.
His lap times during that phase of the race also showed an improvement, overtaking six cars and closing the gap to the front runners.
Hamilton hopes he can build on that progress this weekend in Saudi Arabia.
“That’s the goal,” he added. “I think it was a real positive to have had that stint and had that experience with the car. Some changes that I made in my driving style during the race.
“Now implementing that, putting that there every time I go out in the car. It’s easy to automatically go back to your old driving style. So that’s something I need to make sure I continue to practice. But I feel positive about it.
“Naturally, when the pressure builds up and you need to really pull out that extra bit of time, you can easily fall to your old ways. I’ve seen glimpses of this through testing, but to actually adapt to it and actually utilise it every single time is something I want to work on.
“That was supposed to be my question, but my other one is, we’ve had five races in six weekends with one small gap. Especially in your situation, changing teams.”
Source: espn.com