Lewis Hamilton believes the Bahrain Grand Prix was the weekend he realized essentially the most with Ferrari to date, and he discovered himself aligned with how the automobile wished to be pushed.
Ferrari had a stable outing in Bahrain to safe fourth place courtesy of Charles Leclerc, with Hamilton one place additional again. Whereas Hamilton was additional again within the discipline within the opening phases, he mentioned the way in which he realized how you can get extra efficiency out of his automobile because the race unfolded was a very encouraging signal.
“Far more optimistic,” Hamilton mentioned. “The center stint was actually… I felt actually aligned with the automobile, I felt the steadiness lastly was in a spot and my driving model gave the impression to be working in that second, and so I realized quite a bit from immediately – and this weekend truly, quite a bit. In all probability greater than all the opposite weekends.”
Hamilton admitted it has been a big problem to discover a solution to get the most effective out of a brand new automobile with completely different {hardware} following 12 years at Mercedes.
“It simply feels so alien, and generally I feel all of us get caught in our methods. I’ve been very caught, considering I must preserve driving the way in which I’ve been driving, simply make the automobile come to me, however it’s not working. So I’m adjusting myself now to the automobile.
“Additionally simply the little instruments that they use, it simply drives a lot completely different. With all of the ECU controls that now we have that we use, it’s quite a bit completely different to what I used to be used to.
“One instance is that I by no means used engine braking earlier than. For the previous 12 years, I’ve by no means used engine braking. This yr we use quite a lot of engine braking, to show the automobile.
“The brakes are a lot completely different to what I had previously. They transfer round slightly bit extra. Like within the final stint, I had to make use of the rears to show the automobile, and different occasions it’s a must to put extra weight on the entrance. So it’s most likely an even bigger steadiness window than I used to be used to as properly.”
And Hamilton says he’s additionally studying from teammate Leclerc, having seen that he tends to stay to a particular setup path by a race weekend.
“The secret is to try to get again to it each weekend, as clear as that. The automobile actually does require a unique driving model and I feel I’m slowly adjusting to that.
“Additionally setup, I’ve been a bit in every single place, a good distance from Charles the previous two weekends, after which slowly migrating in the direction of him, so I feel if I begin the weekend with a extra handy spot and apply the methods that I learnt this weekend, hopefully it is going to enhance.”
