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After spending 12 years with the Mercedes F1 team, Lewis Hamilton has now become a part of the Ferrari outfit, and his debut season with them has gotten off to a rocky start. After barely making it into the points in the opening race of the season and then facing disqualification at the end of race two, the Briton has not seen the success that was hoped for.
However, Hamilton has quashed the rumors that he's losing belief in the Italian team, responding to them with his trust in the Prancing Horses.
The Ferrari driver explained that he has retained his confidence in the team and had never held out on any expectations of being a championship winner in his first-ever season.
“I saw someone said to something of whether I’m losing faith in the team, which is complete rubbish,” Hamilton was quoted as saying by Planet F1.
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“I have absolute 100 per cent faith in this team."
“I think there was obviously a huge amount of hype at the beginning of the year, and I don’t know if anyone was expecting us to be winning from race one and winning a championship in our first year. That wasn’t my expectation," Lewis Hamilton mentioned.
Hamilton is also aware that it takes time to settle in and adjust to an entirely different dynamic than he is used to.
“I know that I’m coming into a new culture, a new team, and it’s going to take time."
The British driver also explained how he's been spending time with the Italian outfit since joining them in January. Mostly, he has been watching how the team operates, distinguishing them from his time with Mercedes and McLaren, as well as taking note of areas where they can improve together, but mostly, the 40-year-old has been trying to learn.
“I’ve spent the past two months just observing how the team works in comparison to the other two teams that I’ve worked at. And through this past week, I’ve been able to make notes and create pointers of areas that I feel like we can improve on, and that will continue through the year as we learn more and more about each other,” said Hamilton [via PlanetF1]
One high point with Ferrari came during the Chinese Grand Prix, when Lewis Hamilton qualified for the Sprint race in pole position, converting that the following day into a victory.
"I didn’t feel like any frustration": Lewis Hamilton discusses the double disqualification after the Chinese Grand Prix
After the Grand Prix last weekend in Shanghai, a post-race inspection of the Ferrari cars of Lewis Hamilton and his teammate Charles Leclerc revealed issues. Hamilton's skid block had been exposed to excessive wear, and Leclerc's car was found to be one kg underweight. This led to both drivers having their results disqualified. But this hasn't deterred the seven-time World Champion.
“I didn’t feel like any frustration or anything afterwards. It is what it is,”
“But, I’d say the most impressive thing is how the team have taken it, how they’ve worked, how they’ve turned through the data, and how we progress from here is most important.” [via PlanetF1]
The next race on the calendar is the Japanese Grand Prix, which started with Friday's first two practice sessions and will continue tomorrow with qualifying and another practice bout, followed by the race on Sunday.
Lewis Hamilton finished fourth in both practice sessions earlier today.
