The second stint of the Bahrain Grand Prix, even though it was run under the floodlights of Sakhir, was a kind of ray of sunshine for Lewis Hamilton. After a poor qualifying session, the seven-time world champion finally found the feeling he was looking for with his Ferrari, and he hopes to pick up from there this weekend in Saudi Arabia.
However, the Ferrari driver also explained that the improvement was partly the result of some changes he made to his driving style, underlining that the adaptation process to the SF-25 and the new team is still ongoing and will take some time. The issue is that when it comes to Ferrari, everyone is eager to see big results quickly, because attention is always heavily focused on the Scuderia—sometimes even in a negative way. But for Lewis, the most important thing is that everyone rows in the same direction, because that’s how results will come.
In the second stint in Bahrain, it seems like you finally found the feeling with the car. Do you think you can pick up from there?
“That’s the goal. I think it was really positive to have that stint and that experience with the car. I also made some changes to my driving style that worked during the race. I don’t want to say that will be the case every time I get in the car, but it’s easy to automatically fall back into the old driving style, especially when you have to push to the limit in qualifying, so I have to make sure I keep going in this direction. But the feeling is positive.”
Can you tell us what you changed in your driving style in Bahrain? Do you think it’s something repeatable or was it tied to the specific conditions there?
“I think it’s applicable elsewhere, but it will be a challenge. If you look at my driving style, I’ve always gotten along well with cars like the 2020 and 2021 ones. My style has always worked well that way. Charles’ is already more suited, but that’s because he’s been here a few years. But it’s just something new for me, so it may take some more time. Adapting and being able to use it every time is my priority now.”
Do you think you could have stayed closer to the fight for the podium if you hadn’t used the hard tyres for the final stint?
“In hindsight, I think it wasn’t the best tyre for the race. But we had done a long run with the soft in FP2 and I didn’t feel good. Based on that experience, I was more inclined to choose the hard tyre. In the end, soft-medium-medium or medium-medium-soft would have been the better strategy. With the hard tyre I had a good restart, but then we didn’t have a good balance, we had a lot of understeer. I couldn’t match the pace I had with the mediums. Lando Norris had mediums and I had no chance of keeping up with him.”
Since arriving at Ferrari, you’ve said in several interviews that what actually happens is sometimes different from what gets reported. Has that already happened to you in your career, or do you feel it’s amplified at Ferrari?
“People always try to find a crisis in everything that happens. But that’s to be expected—we’re talking about the biggest team in history, the most special. And of course there’ll be more clicks when talking about it, especially when things aren’t going smoothly. You can’t change things in a team overnight, we’re still getting to know each other. There are some short-term changes we’ll make together, but others will be longer-term. But there are also so many great things in this team. We have to make the most of the energy and passion that’s within the team, but we also have to protect the team, because the spotlight is on us more than on any other team. And I have no doubt we’ll get where we intend to go—it’s just a matter of time.”
The season started with five races in six weeks: would you have preferred to have more time to work at the factory, given that this is a new team for you?
“I’m known for preferring to try things on the real car. But of course I miss being at the factory, I wish I had more time to do that, to see the work the team is doing to allow us to be here. I can’t wait to go back and spend as much time there as possible. But I love racing. I’d race every weekend, so…”
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