In Lewis Hamilton’s own words, his Ferrari debut went “a lot worse” than expected but he has an opportunity to hit straight back at this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix.
Hamilton qualified eighth and finished 10th in Sunday’s chaotic wet Melbourne race as he battled to keep his car out of the wall.
The 40-year-old briefly led the Grand Prix but Ferrari’s poor strategy of staying out on the hard tyres during the late rain shower dented Hamilton and Charles Leclerc’s chances of finishing in the top five.
After his worst finishing result at a season-opener, Hamilton will be hoping the unique Shanghai International Circuit provides better fortune for Ferrari.
Sky Sports F1 takes a look at the key areas the seven-time world champion will be looking to improve on this weekend.
Hamilton speaks after his opening race as a Ferrari driver, finishing 10th at the Australian Grand Prix
Clearer radio communication
Much of Hamilton’s first race in one of Ferrari’s famous cockpits was characterised by his radio communications with his new race engineer, Riccardo Adami.
After 12 years working with Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington in that role to hugely successful effect at Mercedes, there was inevitably going to be a period of adjustment for Hamilton and Adami to strike up their own best way of working in what is a driver’s most-crucial relationship in the whole team.
Melbourne certainly underlined there is early work to do to get to where they want to be, although it should be something the pair can iron out fairly quickly.
In the heat of battle, drivers – including even Hamilton at times with Bonnington over the years – can express irritation with their engineers over team radio but the seven-time world champion was generally very polite in his responses to Adami’s interventions, gently asking the Italian on a couple of occasions to “leave me to it, please” when he felt he had received too much, or unnecessary, information about car settings.
Hamilton embraced his introduction to Ferrari as he left Brackley for Maranello
Hamilton did appear to grow a little more frustrated as his difficult race developed, although still apologised at one point late on after letting an expletive slip out with the radio channel still on when he realised Ferrari’s strategy to stay out longer on slicks in the returning rain had backfired and cost them places.
After the race, Hamilton did say that “the guidance in terms of how much more rain [was coming] was missing” from the pit wall, although still had warm words for Adami, saying the engineer did a “really good job” and that they would “go through all the comments – things I said and vice versa” to see what could be improved.
“Generally, I’m not one that likes a lot of information in-race, unless I ask for it,” added Hamilton, who spent most of the race stuck behind Williams’ Alex Albon.
“He did his best and we’ll move forward.”
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Having listened into the pit-wall-to-car communications through the race, team boss Frederic Vasseur said: “I thought that we can do a better job and to know each other a bit more. For sure it was not a clean one at all, but the strategy was difficult.
“We need to find a better way to communicate between the car and the pit wall, but we will learn from race one and it’s not an issue.”
How long will it take for Hamilton to adapt to Ferrari?
Hamilton said he was “further along” in his adjustment to driving for Ferrari ahead of Australia but quickly realised in Friday’s practice sessions there was still “a way to go”.
When Hamilton made the switch from McLaren to Mercedes in 2013, he was immediately on the pace and outqualified then team-mate Nico Rosberg at the opening three races.
Back then, F1 was a different beast with V8 engines and completely different handling of cars. Nowadays, the turbo-hybrid machines are incredibly complicated and getting the most out of the tyres is also a challenge.
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“It takes long to adapt,” said Vasseur, who managed Hamilton during the British driver’s GP2 career prior to F1.
“We did two days on track on the race weekend, it’s not a mega-long period, and we don’t have to draw conclusions like this. Let’s focus on what we are doing. I don’t think that the issue is to adapt Lewis to something.”
There is just one practice session at this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix because it is a Sprint event, which is not ideal for Hamilton.
A two-week gap follows before a triple-header across April in Japan, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia where the 40-year-old will have racked up plenty of mileage and had time to adapt to the car.
Ferrari drivers Hamilton and Charles Leclerc spoke after finishing P7 and P8 in Qualifying
So what about Hamilton’s speed?
The biggest question mark coming into the season surrounded Hamilton’s qualifying pace after he was comprehensively beaten by George Russell last year.
Hamilton is going up against someone who is seen by some as the quickest driver over one lap, in Leclerc, but he was only a couple tenths off in qualifying, having appeared to be a long way back for most of practice.
“Charles has been in this team for seven years, he knows this car in and out,” said Hamilton.
“Not necessarily the new one but the general characteristics of our cars and all the tools and everything.
“I’m still learning those so to be that close in my first qualifying session, I’ll definitely take it. We’ll just get our heads down and start working trying to find out why we’re not on pace with the front-runners.”
Hamilton lost the rear end on the way into turn 11, leaving him facing the wrong way during Q2
We did not get a clear read of Hamilton’s race pace because it was wet in Melbourne and he had barely any laps in clean air due to being behind Albon.
Dry, sunny conditions are forecast for Shanghai, which is renowned for punishing tyres, so good tyre wear will be key and this was a strength of Hamilton’s at Mercedes. Will that translate at Ferrari?
“I’ve learned a huge amount this weekend. There’s a lot to take away from it,” he said.
“I’ve got some changes I’m going to make for China and see it how goes. Sunday was a crash course in driving a Ferrari in the rain.”
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What about Ferrari themselves?
Ferrari were hoping to at least be in the podium fight in Melbourne and Charles Leclerc setting the pace in second practice certainly heightened expectations.
They appeared to go the wrong way on set-up for qualifying and neither Leclerc or Hamilton were able to move forward in the wet race.
It is far too early to judge Ferrari’s true pace, so this is certainly one where we can say watch this space and even Vasseur says the performance in Australia was “not the real picture”.
Watch Hamilton as he took to the track for his Ferrari debut at the Australian Grand Prix
“Our expectation is always to do the best that we can with the car that we have, and we will keep exactly the same motivation,” he added.
“We are not going somewhere saying that the target is to be P1, P3, P12, the target is to do the best job that we can, and this weekend we didn’t do the best job that we can.
“We start from scratch in China, but we always have to keep in mind that last year, the last four races, the last four weekends, McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes, and us, won one of the last four events, always with big gaps.
“Mercedes was flying in Vegas, we won in Austin and Mexico, and it was changing weekend after weekend because at the end of the day the fight is tight, and if you don’t adapt the car to the weekend, to the tyres, to the track temperature, then you are completely out of the range of performance, and I think this weekend will be a different story.”
Look back at some of the most dramatic moments to have taken place around the Shanghai International Circuit
Sky Sports F1’s live Chinese GP schedule
Thursday March 20
- 5am: Drivers’ Press Conference
Friday March 21
- 1am: F1 Academy Practice
- 3am: Chinese GP Practice One (session starts at 3.30am)*
- 5.30am: Team Principals’ Press Conference
- 6am: F1 Academy Qualifying*
- 6.45am: Chinese GP Sprint Qualifying (session starts at 7.30am)*
Saturday March 22
- 2.25am: Chinese GP Sprint build-up*
- 3am: Chinese GP Sprint*
- 5.45am: F1 Academy Race 1*
- 6.35am: Chinese GP Qualifying build-up*
- 7am: CHINESE GP QUALIFYING*
- 9am: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook*
Sunday March 23
- 2.40am: F1 Academy Race 2
- 5.30am: Chinese GP build-up: Grand Prix Sunday*
- 7am: THE CHINESE GRAND PRIX*
- 9am: Chinese GP reaction: Chequered flag*
- 10am: Ted’s Notebook*
*Also on Sky Sports Main Event
Formula 1 is in Shanghai this week for the first Sprint weekend of the season at the Chinese GP, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – No contract, cancel anytime
