Lewis Hamilton’s first competitive outing for Ferrari was anything but a fairytale, as the sport’s most famous driver began his career with the sport’s most renowned team.
The seven-time world champion qualified eighth for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, one place and 0.218 seconds behind than his teammate Charles Leclerc and 0.877 seconds behind Lando Norris’ McLaren on pole.
Following that, Hamilton reiterated a phrase he has been adopting for some time: it will take some time for him to properly understand his new car and team.
“For me, it’s about improving every lap, session by session,” he remarked. “This weekend has been a big learning curve.
“The automobile was so different than I had
He didn’t finish the sentence, but the point was clear: Leclerc is incredibly fast; everyone knows this. So, from Hamilton’s perspective, in terms of his own relative performance, this was a solid start.
The same could not be said for Ferrari itself. Hamilton is at Ferrari solely to win his ninth world championship. Leclerc himself spoke on Thursday about winning a title, describing Ferrari as his “obsession.” Neither will accomplish their goals with a car that qualifies in the fourth row of the grid.
Leclerc was perplexed by what had occurred. He had been quick all weekend, finishing fourth fastest in the first qualifying session, just over 0.1 seconds behind Norris, who won all three. However, it became progressively worseIt was a sobering start to a season that everyone in Formula One expected to begin with Ferrari as McLaren’s closest opponent. However, not everyone felt it accurately reflected the team’s genuine potential.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella stated, “I am absolutely shocked by the distance between McLaren and Ferrari. But I’d add more; I simply don’t accept that difference at face value.
“I’m confident that the red car’s potential is more than what can be realized today for a variety of reasons.” I believe we saw that till possibly qualifying in every single session, including in Bahrain [during pre-season testing].
“So we are confident that Ferrari is one of the main candidates.”
