Strategy to reconsider
The tenth-place finish in his first race as a Ferrari driver cannot satisfy Lewis Hamilton, who experienced a far from simple Sunday in Australia. The seven-time world champion, during the more intense moments of the race, even let out some more ‘annoyed’ radio messages regarding the pit wall’s strategy management. However, in the usual post-race TV interviews, he tried to analyze the situation calmly.
Expectations disappointed, but…
According to Lewis Hamilton, one of the factors that penalized him was the difficulty of adapting to the new car, especially in such particular conditions as those the drivers found in Melbourne.
“It was one of the toughest days,” admitted #44. “Being in those conditions for the first time in the rain, with this car and this power unit, managing all the steering functions and the new communications with the engineers was a huge challenge. It’s a shame because I was hoping for more today,” he added. “I held on as long as I could. At one point, we found ourselves in a position where we could fight for the podium by staying out, but then more rain came, and the situation got worse.” – the seven-time Formula 1 world champion pointed out.
“Worse performance than expected? No,” Lewis Hamilton concluded. “We didn’t get the car into the right window, but I don’t think the car is as far off as it seemed today. Even in qualifying, I don’t think we managed to extract the car’s performance.” Ferrari is therefore postponed to the Chinese GP, scheduled for next week. A flop in Shanghai would seriously risk sounding some alarm bells at Maranello.
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