Lewis Hamilton comes clean on how his preparation at Ferrari compares to his former rival's

Lewis Hamilton compared his Ferrari debut season to Sebastian Vettel's, stating that the latter had more time for practice with the Italian team. While Vettel did test runs for four months before his debut race with Ferrari in 2015, Hamilton had only January and February to prepare for his transition this year.

Hamilton, the seven-time world champion, is set to debut for Ferrari on March 16, 2025. After announcing the groundbreaking switch, the British driver officially joined the team on January 20 at Maranello.

However, the Brit couldn't feature in the post-season test in Abu Dhabi last year since his contract with Mercedes was expiring on December 31, 2024. He used that time to do a farewell tour of the team's factory to mark a respectful end to his 11-year historic association.

Meanwhile, with just two months at the helm, Hamilton revealed that his preparation time was less compared to his predecessors at Ferrari, including Sebastian Vettel.

Talking to Racingnews365, Hamilton said:

"I did not get to do the test at the end of the year, so I started comparatively late compared to others before me, like when Sebastian was here. I think he started in November, so he had a good two months. As where for me, it's been this month period that I've had, so a lot has been crammed into that time, but personally, I like to jump in at the deep end and figure it out."

Vettel quit Red Bull Racing in 2014 after winning four world championships. While he also skipped the post-season test in Abu Dhabi like Hamilton, the German driver spent the last two months of the year 2014 testing for Ferrari.

He resumed those tests in January and February of 2015 before the season commenced in March. That year, Vettel won the second race of the season in Malaysia to mark his debut win in a Ferrari suit.

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Lewis Hamilton satisfied with his pre-season preparations ahead of his Ferrari debut

Lewis Hamilton (Image Source: Getty)

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is set for a historic moment in his storied career as he will debut for Ferrari on March 16 at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix. Ahead of the monumental moment, he affirmed his readiness.

Talking to the media, he said:

"Right now I feel relaxed. I feel I've prepared myself the best way I can. I was with my engineers yesterday. We were on the simulator. I don't feel like we've left any stone unturned in the space of time we've had. We've crammed in everything from shoots to everything we've done with partners to all the work with the engineers."

Lewis Hamilton did his 1000 km test runs in Ferrari's older models in January. He then went to Bahrain for pre-season test runs and recorded decent results.