Lewis Hamilton believes the Bahrain Grand Prix was the weekend he realized essentially the most with Ferrari up to now, and he discovered himself aligned with how the automotive 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 subject within the opening phases, he mentioned the best way he realized how you can get extra efficiency out of his automotive because the race unfolded was a very encouraging signal.
“Far more constructive,” Hamilton mentioned. “The center stint was actually… I felt actually aligned with the automotive, I felt the steadiness lastly was in a spot and my driving type gave the impression to be working in that second, and so I realized so much from at present – and this weekend really, so much. In all probability greater than all the opposite weekends.”
Hamilton admitted it has been a major problem to discover a option to get one of the best out of a brand new automotive with completely different {hardware} following 12 years at Mercedes.
“It simply feels so alien, and generally I believe all of us get caught in our methods. I’ve been very caught, pondering I have to preserve driving the best way I’ve been driving, simply make the automotive come to me, nevertheless 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 so much 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 variety of engine braking, to show the automotive.
“The brakes are a lot completely different to what I had prior to now. They transfer round a bit bit extra. Like within the final stint, I had to make use of the rears to show the automotive, and different instances you need to put extra weight on the entrance. So it’s in all probability a much bigger steadiness 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 selected setup course by means of a race weekend.
“The secret’s to attempt to get again to it each weekend, as clear as that. The automotive actually does require a distinct driving type and I believe I’m slowly adjusting to that.
“Additionally setup, I’ve been a bit far and wide, a good distance from Charles the previous two weekends, after which slowly migrating in the direction of him, so I believe if I begin the weekend with a extra handy spot and apply the strategies that I learnt this weekend, hopefully it is going to enhance.”
