Lewis Hamilton admitted Ferrari have “work to do to improve” as a technical problem interrupted his working on the ultimate day of Formulation 1 pre-season testing in Bahrain.
The seven-time world champion, who’s making ready to start out his first season with Ferrari having joined after 12 years at Mercedes, had loved an encouraging begin to testing as he completed second on the timesheet on Thursday.
Nonetheless, his plans to run a full race simulation within the remaining session on Friday night had been blighted after Ferrari mentioned they “spotted an anomaly on the telemetry”.
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Highlights from day three of F1 Testing as George Russell pipped rival Max Verstappen to the quickest lap within the remaining minutes
Talking on Friday afternoon earlier than his remaining alternative to drive the SF-25 forward of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix from March 14-16, Hamilton mentioned he had been impressed by Lando Norris’ race simulation for McLaren on Thursday.
“McLaren did a great run yesterday, and I think also Max did a decent one today, given the temperatures,” he mentioned. “It is laborious to know what gasoline masses everyone seems to be working, as we’re all doing our personal completely different programmes, so it’s a must to take every little thing with a pinch of salt.
“McLaren gained the constructors final 12 months. We count on them to be one of many quickest, if not the quickest, as with Purple Bull, who dominated for a lot of, a few years.
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Lewis Hamilton posted back-to-back quickest laps within the Ferrari throughout a powerful begin to the second day of pre-season testing
“For us, we’re simply making an attempt to enhance. I have never even carried out the long term but, so I am about to do it this afternoon, and I am going to get a little bit of a greater understanding of how this automobile behaves in a race stint.
“It’s going be my first race stint in with the team. I’ve only done short runs of like 10 laps, so it’ll be interesting. We’ve definitely got some work to do to improve.”
Hamilton completed fifth on Friday, however frustratingly was solely capable of full 47 laps, in comparison with the 66 his team-mate Charles Leclerc managed within the morning session.
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George Russell could not resist waving at his former Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton throughout day three of testing
Making additional feedback in a press launch from Ferrari following the ultimate session, Hamilton added: “Overall it’s been a great few days and we’ve made some strong progress as a team.
“We needed to end just a little sooner than deliberate at the moment, and the climate has been laborious to foretell all week, however that is how testing works generally and we have managed to assemble numerous good info to construct on earlier than the season begins.
“The whole team has done an incredible job and I’m so excited to get to the first race in Melbourne. I can’t wait to go racing with them.”
Vasseur: In all probability a distinct story in Melbourne
The consensus within the paddock following three days of working was that reigning constructors’ champions McLaren stay the workforce to beat.
Testing instances are at all times considered with warning on account of groups and drivers working completely different programmes, however there was extra uncertainty on this event on account of shocking climate on the Bahrain Worldwide Circuit.
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Craig Slater and Ted Kravitz give their predictions as to which workforce will likely be quickest this season and who will likely be slowest after testing in Bahrain
The temperatures had been far cooler than they’re prone to be in Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix, and in addition when F1 returns to Bahrain for spherical 4 of the season in April.
Ferrari workforce principal Fred Vasseur mentioned: “It has been hard to get a clear read on the overall situation here in Bahrain as the conditions were changing quite a lot day by day and from the morning to the afternoon, so it was more similar to Las Vegas than to the Bahrain we usually know.
“Over the previous six months we’ve got labored very laborious on this automobile and we’ve got made a great enchancment however we must wait till we’re all on observe in Melbourne to know the place we’re.
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Lewis Hamilton says he is actually having fun with driving the Ferrari and jokingly thinks about what an Italian model of ‘Hammer Time’ may very well be
“If we look at the hierarchy of previous years, what we saw here was not the same as in qualifying a week later, under the same conditions. We will go from 10-15 degrees on the track to the 45 we will have in Australia, so in Melbourne it will probably be a whole different story.
“We need to combat for each championships as we all know we’ve got two drivers who can do it and the temper within the workforce could be very constructive. We are going to proceed to work laborious to be prepared in two weeks’ time for the beginning of the season.”
When is the first F1 race?
For the first time since 2019, the season-opener will be held in Melbourne at the Australian Grand Prix on March 14-16. The first race has switched from Bahrain to Australia due to Ramadan taking place throughout March.
There are 24 events on the 2025 F1 calendar, the same number as last year, with the season ending at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on December 5-7.
Watch all 24 race weekends from the 2025 Formula 1 season live on Sky Sports F1, starting with the Australian GP on March 14-16. Stream Sky Sports activities with NOW – No contract, cancel anytime
