Lewis Hamilton believes the Bahrain Grand Prix was the weekend he discovered essentially the most with Ferrari thus far, and he discovered himself aligned with how the automotive needed to be pushed.
Ferrari had a strong outing in Bahrain to safe fourth place courtesy of Charles Leclerc, with Hamilton one place additional again. Whereas Hamilton was additional again within the area within the opening phases, he stated the best way he discovered how one can get extra efficiency out of his automotive because the race unfolded was a very encouraging signal.
“Far more constructive,” Hamilton stated. “The center stint was actually… I felt actually aligned with the automotive, I felt the stability lastly was in a spot and my driving model gave the impression to be working in that second, and so I discovered quite a bit from in the present day – and this weekend truly, quite a bit. Most likely greater than all the opposite weekends.”
Hamilton admitted it has been a big problem to discover a solution to get the very best out of a brand new automotive with completely different {hardware} following 12 years at Mercedes.
“It simply feels so alien, and typically I feel all of us get caught in our methods. I’ve been very caught, pondering I must maintain driving the best way I’ve been driving, simply make the automotive come to me, however it’s not working. So I’m adjusting myself now to the automotive.
“Additionally simply the little instruments that they use, it simply drives a lot completely different. With all of the ECU controls that we’ve got 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 a number of engine braking, to show the automotive.
“The brakes are a lot completely different to what I had prior to now. They transfer round slightly bit extra. Like within the final stint, I had to make use of the rears to show the automotive, and different occasions you need to put extra weight on the entrance. So it’s most likely a much bigger stability window than I used to be used to as effectively.”
And Hamilton says he’s additionally studying from teammate Leclerc, having seen that he tends to stay to a particular setup course by means of a race weekend.
“The secret is to attempt to get again to it each weekend, as clear as that. The automotive actually does require a distinct driving model and I feel I’m slowly adjusting to that.
“Additionally setup, I’ve been a bit in all places, a good distance from Charles the previous two weekends, after which slowly migrating in direction of him, so I feel if I begin the weekend with a extra handy spot and apply the strategies that I learnt this weekend, hopefully it can enhance.”
