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Lewis Hamilton expressed how Ferrari still needed to improve themselves for the 2025 Formula One season.
F1: Ferrari racer Lewis Hamilton (AP)
British motorsport icon Lewis Hamilton has admitted Ferrari has ‘work to do’ after a technical issue interrupted his running during the Formula 1 pre-season testing. The seven-time World Champion enjoyed an encouraging start to testing on the final day in Bahrain, finishing second on the timesheet. Speaking ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix from March 14 to 16, Hamilton expressed how Ferrari still needed to improve themselves for the 2025 season. “It’s going be my first race stint with the team. I’ve only done short runs of like 10 laps, so it’ll be interesting. We’ve definitely got some work to do to improve,” he said, as per Sky Sports.
While Lewis Hamilton finished fifth on Friday, he frustratingly only managed to complete 47 laps. His teammate, Charles Leclerc, managed 66 laps in the morning session. Hamilton’s plans to run a full race simulation in the final session were blighted after Ferrari said they ‘spotted an anomaly on the telemetry on.’ Before his final opportunity to drive the SF-25 ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, Hamilton revealed he was impressed with Lando Norris’ race simulation for McLaren on Thursday. “McLaren did a great run yesterday, and I think also Max did a decent one today, given the temperatures,” the multi-time World Champion said.
Lewis Hamilton further acknowledged that McLaren will likely be one of the best teams in the upcoming season since they won the Constructors’ title last year. “McLaren won the Constructors’ last year. We expect them to be one of the quickest, if not the quickest, as with Red Bull, who dominated for many, many years,” he said. “For us, we’re just trying to improve. I haven’t even done the long run yet, so I’m about to do it this afternoon, and I’ll get a bit of a better understanding of how this car behaves in a race stint,” Hamilton concluded.
The consensus in the paddock after three days of testing was that reigning Constructors’ Champions McLaren is the team to beat in 2025. The testing times, however, are always viewed with caution due to the teams and drivers running different programmes. There was additional certainty on this occasion due to the surprising weather at the Bahrain International Circuit. The temperatures were comparatively cooler than they would likely be in Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix.