Lewis Hamilton reacts to Ferrari debut: “A lot worse than I thought”
“It went a lot worse than I thought it would go. The car was really, really hard to drive today.”
Lewis Hamilton admitted that his first race as a Ferrari F1 driver went “worse than I thought it would go” after finishing 10th at the Australian Grand Prix.
Hamilton struggled for pace in the season-opening race in Melbourne, ultimately finishing just inside the points at Albert Park.
The seven-time world champion made a good start from eighth on the grid but lost out at the first corner when battling teammate Charles Leclerc.
Hamilton dropped behind Yuki Tsunoda and Alex Albon, who he couldn’t get past.
When on dry tyres, Ferrari gambled by keeping both drivers out when the rain came out.
They briefly held a 1-2 before being forced to stop for intermediates, dropping both drivers well down the order.
Leclerc overtook Hamilton after the Safety Car restart.
Hamilton then lost another place on the final lap to Oscar Piastri.
Reflecting on the race to Sky Sports, Hamilton conceded it was a “very tricky” afternoon.
“It’s very tricky,” Hamilton said. “It went a lot worse than I thought it would go. The car was really, really hard to drive today. For me, I am just grateful I kept it out of the wall because that’s really where it wanted to go most of the time. A lot to take from it.
“Also just getting acclimatised with the new power unit in wet conditions, all of the settings it requires are different. Different way of driving. A different setup on the steering wheel.
“I hung out as long as I could, got in the lead at one point. Just the guidance in terms of how much rain was coming, which was missing there. We missed out.”
Confusing Ferrari strategy in Australia
Hamilton and Leclerc were left to rue poor strategy choices on the pit wall as they came away from the weekend with just five points between them.
Ferrari and Racing Bulls didn’t react to the heavy rain, keeping their drivers out on slick tyres.
Ferrari thought that the rain would only last a lap at a particular part of the circuit, meaning that staying out on dry tyres could have paid off.
Speaking of the strategy calls, Hamilton added: “We try to but I mean the information I got was it was just a short shower, real quick. At the time, it was only in the last corner.
“For me I was like the rest of the track was dry. I can keep this on track if that’s all that’s coming but more came.”
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