How fast was Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton? F1 pre-season lap time analysis

Lewis Hamilton has accomplished his first F1 pre-season with Ferrari forward of his debut race with them in a fortnight’s time.

The seven-time world champion has had one-and-a-half days to stand up to hurry with Ferrari’s 2025 challenger in Bahrain earlier than his first race with the Italian staff on the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on 16 March.

Regardless of his remaining day ending early when Ferrari curtailed his operating prematurely earlier than he was in a position to full a deliberate race simulation, it was a largely optimistic take a look at for Hamilton.

The 40-year-old Briton ended up sixth within the timesheet on Friday, 0.8 seconds off former Mercedes teammate George Russell who set the tempo on the third and remaining day.

Hamilton was almost half a second quicker than new teammate Charles Leclerc on the ultimate day of testing however he did use a tyre compound one step softer and had the higher of the observe circumstances within the afternoon session, whereas Leclerc’s finest lap was set within the morning.

Hamilton second-fastest total

Maybe extra encouraging is the truth that Hamilton’s outright quickest lap, set in the course of the remaining hour of Thursday morning’s session with C3 Pirelli tyres, was the second-quickest of your entire take a look at.

Hamilton posted a 1m29.379s which put him second on the very best lap occasions, simply 0.031s behind Williams’ Carlos Sainz, the motive force he has changed at Ferrari.

It was additionally four-tenths faster than what Leclerc managed on the identical C3 compounds on the afternoon of day two, via mild drizzle lingered within the air all through Thursday, whereas temperatures have been unusually low for Bahrain.

Hamilton’s finest lap was additionally faster than Ferrari’s Q3 lap from qualifying ultimately 12 months’s Bahrain Grand Prix, however slower than the 1m29.165 outright quickest lap Leclerc produced in Q2.

In the meantime, Ferrari’s finest lap from 2024 pre-season testing in Bahrain was 1m29.931 set by Sainz on day two. In distinction Leclerc’s was a 1m30.322s. Each have been set on Pirelli’s C4 tyre.

Hamilton’s quickest Mercedes lap time from Bahrain’s 2024 take a look at was a 1m31.256s on day two. Total, it was the tenth fastest-time set in the course of the take a look at.

Naturally, lap occasions can be anticipated to be faster this 12 months given the groups have had a number of months to proceed to develop their vehicles heading into what would be the remaining season earlier than a serious regulation overhaul.

These kinds of comparisons are all subjective, notably on condition that pre-season testing is a usually unreliable indicator of precise aggressive efficiency.

Elements similar to gasoline masses and engine modes – which have a serious impression on efficiency – aren’t revealed by the groups, who attempt to maintain their playing cards as near their chest as doable on the eve of a brand new season.

In the end, we is not going to really know the place Hamilton or Ferrari stand till the season opener in Melbourne in two weeks’ time.

However, it’s nonetheless attention-grabbing to contemplate how Hamilton fared following such a blockbuster change after 12 seasons with Mercedes.

Full Bahrain F1 2025 pre-season testing outcomes

Hamilton admits Ferrari ‘have work to do’

Talking earlier than he drove the SF-25 on Friday, Hamilton did concede that Ferrari “undoubtedly have some work to do to enhance” earlier than the brand new season begins in Australia.

“It is exhausting to know what gasoline masses everyone seems to be operating so it’s important to take all the pieces with a pinch of salt,” Hamilton defined.

“[McLaren] received the constructors’ How briskly was Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton? F1 pre-season lap time evaluation final 12 months. We count on them to be one of many quickest if not the quickest. As with Pink Bull, they dominated for a few years. We have undoubtedly obtained some work to do to enhance.”

However after a troublesome remaining few years with Mercedes, Hamilton mentioned being at Ferrari is the “most optimistic feeling” he has had in a very long time.

“I’ve discovered that you simply actually cannot choose an excessive amount of from the primary outlook,” he mentioned. “I undoubtedly assume in previous years, notably within the earlier technology of automobile, it was a lot simpler to know the place you stood fairly early on.

“However I might say that is essentially the most optimistic feeling that I’ve had in a very long time. That’s all I can actually say for now.”

Hamilton additionally supplied extra particulars on the place he’s at within the technique of totally adapting himself to Ferrari’s 2025 F1 automobile and the Italian staff.

“I nonetheless really feel that there is nonetheless fairly a bit to return,” Hamilton added. “Happily, I obtained to drive the 2023 automobile. So, I’ve actually been in a position to evaluate to the 2024 and the 2023 automobile and see the place they’ve progressed, the issues that they had on these two vehicles and the way they’ve improved into this one.

“Clearly I did not get to do the take a look at on the finish of the 12 months, so for me, I began comparatively late in comparison with others which have come earlier than me – like Sebastian [Vettel] began right here in November [2014], so he had an excellent two months, whereas for me it has been this [one] month interval that I’ve had.

“So, lots has been crammed in, in that point. However I personally like to simply soar within the deep finish and determine it out. That is what we’re doing, however after all we’re going via the processes and I really feel like in this time period we have constructed a extremely good basis.”