Lewis Hamilton reveals ‘gut feeling’ about Ferrari's 2025 F1 car

Lewis Hamilton says he has the “most positive feeling” he has had “for a long time” heading into his debut F1 season with Ferrari.

The seven-time world champion is gearing up for his first season with Ferrari after completing a seismic transfer to the Italian team this year after 12 seasons with Mercedes - a move which sent shockwaves through the sport.

Hamilton set the second-fastest time on day two of F1’s three-day pre-season test in Bahrain as he ended up just 0.031 seconds behind the man he replaced at Ferrari, Carlos Sainz.

Speaking on Thursday in Bahrain, Hamilton declared that he was “really enjoying” his new Ferrari and said he is “slowly bonding” with the team’s 2025 challenger ahead of the new campaign.

Asked for his gut feeling about the SF-25 before driving on Friday afternoon, Hamilton replied: “I think probably the last four years or so, I’ve learned that you really can’t take too much from the first outlook.

“For me, I definitely think, particularly in the previous generation of car, it was much easier to know where you stood much earlier on with that early feeling. I would say this is the most positive feeling that I’ve had for a long time, that’s all I can really say for now.”

The 40-year-old Briton provided more detail about his adaptation to F1’s most famous and successful team.

“This is a really vital few days that you get in the car,” Hamilton explained. “We’re just focusing on doing the best job that we can with what we have and understanding the package we have.

“Obviously for me I’m learning more and more about how the team likes to work and making small tweaks here and there to improve my efficiency and the efficiency of how we work together. So it’s been really positive.”

Just how different are Ferrari’s F1 cars?

Speaking about the differences of Ferrari’s F1 cars compared to what he has previously driven at Mercedes and McLaren, Hamilton added: “Firstly they are very well built and massively different in characteristics.

“Rather than just jumping into this car and having exactly the same, it’s been refreshing to have something to learn. Different ways to how you have to drive the car, different requirements to how you approach corners, the engine has a different tone, a different feel, different drivability, and I’ve been driving a Mercedes for so long, which is such a great power unit.

“It’s great to see that Ferrari also have a great power unit. It’s something that I’m spending time with the engineers from the engine department and learning the process they take for reliability and power. That’s a process in itself but so far it’s been really great.”

Along with his one and a half days behind the wheel of Ferrari’s 2025 challenger in Bahrain, Hamilton, who famously dislikes testing, has also had the chance to sample the team’s 2023 and 2024 cars in private tests in Italy and Spain.

But when asked if he would like more testing days to help him get up to speed with his new team, Hamilton laughed: “No! I still am not a fan of testing but I’ve really enjoyed the testing I’ve had this year.

“I’m super grateful for the TPC testing that I got to do. If I only had this day and a half, I definitely wouldn’t be in this position now in terms of how comfortable I feel in the car. There’s still some ways to go. At this point I’m just excited to get racing.”