Hamilton still needs to adapt his driving style to Ferrari’s car characteristics
Having complained about severe understeer behind the wheel of his SF-25 on the opening day at the Australian Grand Prix, Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton has admitted that he will need to adapt his driving style to the characteristics of Ferrari’s F1 car.
Charles Leclerc had a quite opening session, finishing third behind McLaren's Lando Norris and his former team-mate Carlos Sainz. The Monegasque then went on to top the second practice session, posting a time of 1m16.439s on Pirelli's soft tyres.
The 27-year-old driver insisted that he wants to target the pole position in qualifying, but he is yet to find out the real pecking order.
"The feeling in the car was good and we had a solid first day on track. There is still some margin for improvement in terms of the balance, which is the same for everyone across the paddock, given that these cars are still pretty new to all of us and we have to push to understand their limits. It’s too early to come to any conclusions.
"We will only get a first idea of the respective pace of all the teams in qualifying. All in all, it was a good day and we look forward to tomorrow, when we want to target pole position," concluded the Monegasque.
His new team-mate Lewis Hamilton appeared to suffer from severe understeer in the opening practice, and ended up down in P12. However, the seven-time world champion improved his pace for the second session and took fifth.
Despite the improved form, Hamilton will need to find an even better balance and more performance if he is to match Leclerc in his first qualifying session as a Ferrari driver.
"It’s great to finally get going and start my first race weekend with Scuderia Ferrari HP. It’s been a learning day as I continue to understand and get to grips with the new car. Everything is so completely different from what I’ve been used to for so long, but that’s the challenge, and I’m embracing it.
"We were not completely satisfied with FP1, but we made some good progress in FP2 and got some solid longer runs in, which was important.
"There’s still balance work to do overnight, and we’re missing a bit of pace, but that’s expected. It’s about building step by step, maximising what we have, and continuing to push forward. Looking forward to working hard and seeing what improvements we can make tomorrow."
