Lewis Hamilton believes the Bahrain Grand Prix was the weekend he learned the most with Ferrari so far, and he found himself aligned with how the car wanted to be driven.
Ferrari had a solid outing in Bahrain to secure fourth place courtesy of Charles Leclerc, with Hamilton one place further back. While Hamilton was further back in the field in the opening stages, he said the way he learned how to get more performance out of his car as the race unfolded was a particularly encouraging sign.
“Much more positive,” Hamilton said. “The middle stint was really… I felt really aligned with the car, I felt the balance finally was in a spot and my driving style seemed to be working in that moment, and so I learned a lot from today – and this weekend actually, a lot. Probably more than all the other weekends.”
Hamilton admitted it has been a significant challenge to find a way to get the best out of a new car with different hardware following 12 years at Mercedes.
“It just feels so alien, and sometimes I think we all get stuck in our ways. I’ve been very stuck, thinking I need to keep driving the way I’ve been driving, just make the car come to me, but it’s not working. So I’m adjusting myself now to the car.
“Also just the little tools that they use, it just drives so much different. With all the ECU controls that we have that we use, it’s a lot different to what I was used to.
“One example is that I never used engine braking before. For the past 12 years, I’ve never used engine braking. This year we use a lot of engine braking, to turn the car.
“The brakes are so much different to what I had in the past. They move around a little bit more. Like in the last stint, I had to use the rears to turn the car, and other times you have to put more weight on the front. So it’s probably a bigger balance window than I was used to as well.”
And Hamilton says he’s also learning from teammate Leclerc, having seen that he tends to stick to a specific setup direction through a race weekend.
“The key is to try and get back to it every weekend, as clear as that. The car really does require a different driving style and I think I’m slowly adjusting to that.
“Also setup, I’ve been a bit all over the place, a long way from Charles the past two weekends, and then slowly migrating towards him, so I think if I start the weekend with a more convenient spot and apply the techniques that I learnt this weekend, hopefully it will improve.”
