
From stars to hardships
After the pre-season festivities and the crowds cheering him on, Lewis Hamilton is now experiencing the less pleasant side of being a Ferrari driver. Following the nightmare start to the season for the Scuderia – with the only consolation coming from the Briton himself and his victory in the Sprint race in China – the seven-time world champion is facing the media pressure that Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel had to deal with before him.
Inevitably, the double disqualification from the results of the Chinese GP – an unprecedented event in Ferrari’s history – has fueled public criticism of the team. However, Lewis Hamilton, speaking with journalists at the Suzuka circuit ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, strongly responded to these criticisms and to those suggesting that this difficult start was already making him lose confidence in the team’s way of working.
Confidence in the Maranello team
“I saw that someone sent me something asking whether I’m losing confidence in the team or not, but that’s garbage,” said Hamilton. “I have 100% absolute confidence in this team. I think there was a lot of noise at the start of the year, and I don’t know if anyone expected us to win from the first race and win a championship in our first year. That’s not what I expected. I know I’m entering a new culture, a new team, and it will take time. Over the past two months, I’ve been observing how the team works compared to the other two I’ve worked with. In the last week, I’ve been able to take notes and create suggestions for areas I think can be improved, and this will continue throughout the year as we get to know each other better.”
Lewis Hamilton then shared that he wasn’t particularly disturbed by the double disqualification in Shanghai: “I didn’t feel any frustration or anything else. It went like this,” said Hamilton to the journalists. “Obviously, we’ve analyzed everything. I was at the factory on Wednesday, and there’s a lot to learn. We experience the highs and lows together, like a team. Obviously, that’s not why everyone worked so hard. No team, no engineer, no mechanic works at their best to then have a situation like this. I’d say the most impressive thing is how the team took it, how they worked, and how they analyzed the data. The way we’ll progress from here is the most important thing,” concluded the Briton.
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