Damon Hill says Lewis Hamilton’s long-time habit is behind his Ferrari struggles. Damon Hill: Hamilton must change Mercedes-era habit to succeed at Ferrari.

In an interview, 1996 World Champion Damon Hill observed that Lewis Hamilton appears to have developed a driving “habit” that is hindering his adjustment to Ferrari. Hill made this observation during qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix, in which Hamilton, for the first time since joining the Maranello team, failed to qualify for Q3.

“One of the difficulties Lewis has faced in moving to Ferrari lies in the change in the braking system. At Mercedes, they use a different brake supplier, so he’s struggling to let go of the habit of braking the way he was used to at Mercedes.”

According to Damon Hill, Lewis Hamilton had become accustomed to the Carbon Industrie brakes used by Mercedes, while Ferrari uses Brembo. In a recent interview, Lewis Hamilton himself had mentioned the significant differences between the two systems.

“Sometimes I think all of us [as drivers] get stuck in our habits, like: ‘I have to keep driving the way I always have, I just need to make the car suit me a bit,’ but that doesn’t work. Now I’m trying to adapt to the car myself, and even just to the tools they use… here [at Ferrari], you drive in a completely different way.” – the former Formula 1 driver pointed out.

To give an example, Lewis Hamilton added: “I haven’t used engine braking at all in the last 12 years, but here we use it a lot to get the car to turn. We have very different brakes from what Mercedes uses: in the last stint, I had to use the rear to make the car rotate, and at other times you have to load the front more, so it’s probably also a wider balance window than what I was used to.”