Hamilton says Ferrari’s car gives him “the most positive feeling in a long time” · RaceFans

Lewis Hamilton said he feels more confident at the wheel of a Formula 1 car than he has for several years following his move to Ferrari.

The seven-times champion was often dissatisfied with his car’s balance during the past three seasons, and endured the longest win-less spell of his career. That ended in 2024, when he won twice, though Hamilton nonetheless often indicated he wasn’t comfortable in his Mercedes.

Hamilton said the current generation of ‘ground effect’ cars, introduced in 2022, are harder to get a read on from the outset than their predecessors. However he is encouraged by what he’s felt so far in the new SF-25.

“I think probably in the last four years or so I’ve learned that you really can’t judge too much from the first outlook,” he said today. “I definitely think in past years before that, particularly in the previous generation of car, it was much easier to know where you stood quite early on with that early feeling.

“I would say this is the most positive feeling that I’ve had in a long time. That’s all I can really say for now.”

However he also believes there is much untapped potential at his new team. “There’s still quite a bit to come,” he said.

“But fortunately I got to drive the 2023 car, so I’ve really been able to compare the ’24 and the ’23 car and see where they’ve progressed, the problems they had on those two cars and how they’ve improved into this one.”

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Recent world champions who joined Ferrari made successful starts at the team. Fernando Alonso won on his debut in 2010 and Sebastian Vettel won his second race after joining them in 2015.

However Hamilton, who has only had one-and-a-half official testing days in his new car, pointed out his predecessors benefited from being able to start work with Ferrari earlier than he did.

“Obviously, I didn’t get to do the test at the end of the year, so for me I started relatively late compared to others that have come before me. Sebastian was here, I think [he] started in November so he had a good two months, where for me it’s been this month period that I’ve had, so a lot has been crammed into that time.

“Personally I’d like to just jump in the deep end and figure it out, and that’s what we were doing. But of course we’re going through the processes. I feel like in this period of time we’ve built a really good foundation.”