After early concerns from fans at Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton’s recent outing in his new Ferrari SF-25 during the Bahrain pre-test was a stark contrast to the last Formula 1 test. Hamilton appeared to be more please with the results of this test which is in line with him having more time learning the new car and controls. Testing is always exciting,” said Hamilton. “It’s the first time you get to see what everyone has been developing and can start to get a feel for your own car and the year ahead. Being here with Scuderia Ferrari HP and in the SF-25 for the first time is an incredible feeling.
Our focus right now is on experimenting with different things, gathering as much data as possible and getting familiar with the car, and we’ve already learned a lot. It’s too early to really understand performance, but everything feels good and as a team we’re working on the best way to optimize each run. There’s more to do over the next few days to get through our program and understand the car to the best of our ability, but right now I’m looking forward to getting out there again tomorrow.”
Hamilton ran 13th fastest on day one of testing.
Charles Leclerc Ahead of Hamilton
Charles Leclerc finished day 1 fourth fastest which was to be expected. Leclerc has emerged as the lead driver thus far and its clear he doesn’t want to make concessions to Hamilton without earning it on the track. It feels good to be back on track. The whole team put a lot of effort into the SF-25 project over the winter break, so it’s exciting to finally get down to work with it.
It’s always a positive to have a smooth session without anything unexpected happening in terms of your run plan, although of course, it’s still too early to come to any conclusions about our performance. We’re going to analyze our data from today and make use of what we learn tonight when we start work again tomorrow”