Lewis Hamilton’s rollercoaster start to life at Ferrari continued with a strong recovery drive, somewhat salvaging a Bahrain Grand Prix weekend that proved to be his most informative yet.
Hamilton was despondent after qualifying ninth for the grand prix on Saturday, seven places behind his front row starting team-mate Charles Leclerc.
But things got a lot better for Hamilton on Sunday, as he mounted a strong comeback through the field that included an easy pass on former F1 title rival Max Verstappen and a strong middle stint where he and team-mate Charles Leclerc were on race winner Oscar Piastri’s pace.
The safety car somewhat spoiled Ferrari’s solid strategy of a long opening stint on medium tyres - 15 of the 20 starters began on softs including the whole top 1– apart from the Ferrari drivers - followed by another stint on mediums and a final stint that could have used hard or soft tyres.
But Hamilton was still satisfied to take fifth place with a much better feeling aboard the Ferrari than on Saturday.
He's also made some important set-up conclusions, having thus far followed his own set-up path, that is often at odds with the route Leclerc has gone down.
“Finally we were in a spot and my driving style seemed to be working in that moment and so learned a lot today and this weekend a lot, probably more than all the other weekends,” Hamilton said after the race.
Hamilton has been trying to adapt his driving style to a very different Ferrari car to the Mercedes machines he drove for 12 seasons.
“It’s clear the car really does require a different driving style and I think I'm finding more - slowly adjusting to that - and also set-up. I think I’ve been a bit all over the place a long way from Charles the past two weekends and then slowly migrating towards him,” Hamilton explained.
“So, I think if I start the weekend with a more convenient spot and apply the techniques that I learned this weekend hopefully it'll be [better].”
Hamilton said the Ferrari “just feels so alien” after so long at Mercedes.
“Sometimes I think we all get stuck in our ways and very stuck right now and I need to keep driving the way I’m driving and make the car come to me but it’s not working so I'm adjusting myself now to the car,” Hamilton said.
“Also the way with the tools… it just drives so much different with all the ECU controls that we have, we have to use them a lot different to what we did in the car.”
For example, Hamilton had never used engine braking to slow down an F1 car before he jumped in the Ferrari, so that’s taken time for Hamilton to adapt to.
High highs and low lows
Hamilton’s Ferrari beginnings have had some extreme highs - a (sprint) pole position and race win in only the second weekend - and some crushing lows - one day later an embarrassing double disqualification - that have made it tricky for Ferrari and the watching world to draw too many conclusions.
“He won't replace 12 years of collaboration in two weeks or in two races, that means for sure we need to improve but this is true for every team in the paddock, our DNA is to try and do a better job,” Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur said.
“It's good to have Lewis with this mindset of 'OK I have to also improve myself, I need to adapt myself to the car'. We'll work on the car and adapt the car to Lewis but he also has to do a step. I think this between us is done in a positive and constructive way.
“We have to stay calm in terms of judgement of the performance because sometimes for almost nothing you can change a good weekend to a very poor one, and visa versa.
“It means I appreciated the direction of Lewis yesterday, I did my best to push him a little bit and today was in a very good shape and strong shape. Let's start from there next week and hope to do [better].”
It’s this expectation management that has been a staple of Vasseur’s tenure. He steadied the ship when Ferrari lost its way with its ill-fated new floor at the Spanish GP last year and the team did recover by the end of the year to the front.
So too during Vasseur’s maiden year at Ferrari where it turned its tricky 2023 challenger into a more consistent threat to then-pacesetter Red Bull by the end of the year.
Vasseur is convinced that the same approach will help Hamilton and Ferrari recover those last few tenths they're missing to McLaren.
“I was not expecting something different, after China we were speaking about the prize-giving ceremony, after China race two that it was a disaster,” Vasseur said when asked if Hamilton’s Ferrari stint was being judged too quickly.
“In terms of management, we have to take it a bit easy, to calm down, we have ups and downs as everybody. The issue is probably that the up for us are a bit higher and the downs are a bit lower.
“It means if we want to keep a consistent approach, and we did it very well the last two years. We have to stay calm, try to improve by hundredths of a second.
“I'm convinced we'll do the same job as we did the last two years.”
