Australian Grand Prix
Location: Melbourne’s Albert Park Date: March 16th, Sunday Start of the race: 4:00 GMT
Lewis Hamilton’s first competitive experience with Ferrari was anything from idyllic; the most renowned driver in Formula 1 started his career with the most recognizable team in the sport.
For the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, the seven-time world champion qualified just seventh, one rank and 0.218 seconds behind his teammate Charles Leclerc and a staggering 0.877 seconds behind Lando Norris’ McLaren in pole position.
Hamilton then reiterated the phrase he has been using for a while: that it would take some time before he is completely comfortable with his new car and team.
“For me, just improving every single lap, session on session,” he stated. “This weekend is a big learning curve.
“Building confidence in the car has been a much slower process, and the car was completely different from anything I had ever experienced here.
“Charles, who has had confidence from the beginning, has had me down all weekend in the high-speed [corners].” He was aware of the car’s functions. That was just what I was preparing for. To be that close to Charles on my first qualifying session against a top qualifier made me much closer in the end.”
The point was obvious even if he didn’t finish the sentence: Leclerc is incredibly fast, as everyone is aware. From Hamilton’s perspective, this was a respectable beginning in terms of his own relative performance.
Ferrari itself was not in the same boat. Hamilton’s sole goal while at Ferrari is to win an eighth world championship. On Thursday, Leclerc acknowledged that his “obsession” is winning a championship with Ferrari. With a car that qualifies on the fourth row of the grid, neither will accomplish their goals.
Leclerc couldn’t understand what had happened. He finished fourth in the first qualifying session, little over 0.1 seconds behind Norris, who finished first in all three, after being fast all weekend. But as the hour went on, it got worse and worse.
Leclerc remarked, “It was a little unfortunate that we discovered more and more inconsistency as soon as we started to push the car more and more.”
“We somewhat slowed down throughout qualifying. We performed well in Q1, poorly in Q2, and had to work very hard to try to get the lap time down in Q3. For some reason, we didn’t actually follow the track.
“This car has a lot of potential but for now we don’t seem to be in the right window, so we have to find it.”
With Ferrari as McLaren’s closest rival, it was a sobering beginning to a season that everyone in Formula One had anticipated. However, not everyone thought it accurately represented the team’s potential.
Andrea Stella, the team principal for McLaren, stated: “The difference between McLaren and Ferrari really surprises me. However, I would add that I simply don’t accept that gap as fact.
“I have no doubt that the red automobile has more potential than might be utilized now for various reasons. Until perhaps qualifying in every session, including in Bahrain [during pre-season testing], I believe we have witnessed that.
“So we are very realistic that Ferrari is definitely one of the main contenders.”
