Lewis Hamilton takes subtle dig at Mercedes with 'the most positive feeling' verdict for Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton has taken a dig at Mercedes in a very subtle manner by claiming that driving the Ferrari has been the most positive feeling in a while. The 7x world champion was a driver for the German team until last season, when he announced that he was leaving the squad for the Italian team.

The decision came as a shock for many, as Hamilton had only recently signed a multi-year contract with Mercedes. Not only that, the driver had gone through an eight-year dominant run with the team, where he himself won six titles while the team picked up eight.

Mercedes was, however, in a spot of bother in the ground effect era. After competing for titles from 2012 to 2021, the team finished only third in the championship in 2022, with Hamilton himself facing a lot of issues with the car. With the Brit moving to Ferrari, the first question in the mind of many was how he would perform in the red car. The driver has struggled with the ground effect cars in general, especially since 2022, and there was a lack of clarity on how the driver would fare.

In what was a subtle dig at the Mercedes cars he'd been driving in the last four years, Lewis Hamilton said that compared to that, the Ferrari gave him the most positive feeling. He told media, including Sportskeeda, at the press conference:

"Over the last four years or so, I can’t judge [the cars] too much and take too much on my first outlook. I mean, for me, I definitely think in the past, years before that, taking the previous generation car was much easier, I think, to know where you stood quite early on with that kind of feeling. I would say this is the most positive feeling that I’ve had in a long time."

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Lewis Hamilton acknowledges there's still work to do with the car

Lewis Hamilton had a somewhat stop-start run in the Ferrari during the pre-season test. The first day was not as impressive, but the second and third days showed that the driver was getting on top of the car. He was, however, unable to complete a race simulation because of a few issues with the car. The driver admitted after the test that the team still had work to do, as he said:

"Personally, I like to just jump in deep and figure it out. That’s what we’ve been doing. We’ve gone through the processes and tried to really… I feel like, in this period of time, we’ve built a really good foundation. But, everyone knows these guys out there are really, really quick, really competitive."

"It looks very, very close. We might not know until [race week] where we stand, but we know that we’ve got work to do. And everyone is just heads down and I’ve been really inspired and really encouraged by it. My colleagues, just how… from a set of leaders, how hardworking everyone is. Getting to know everyone in the garage, the night shift crew, just their processes and how they like to work," Lewis Hamilton added.

Lewis Hamilton has a stern challenge in front of him this season as he's teamed up with Charles Leclerc, a brilliant talent and someone who's on a long-term contract with Ferrari.