Ferrari Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton has opened up on the “alien” driving style that he is getting used to in his debut season with the red team. The Briton acknowledged the positive race weekend at Monza, but admitted that the SF-25 F1 car is far from delivering a podium finish.
Hamilton started the Italian Grand Prix in P10 due to a five-place grid penalty and went on to secure sixth place. He admitted being confident with the car this weekend, which helped him push hard. This is a stark contrast to the race weekends he experienced before the summer break, when the struggles in adapting to the SF-25 affected his morale.
Speaking after the 53-lap race that saw him chase his former teammate George Russell in the final laps, Hamilton was asked if he had fun gaining four positions since the race start. He said:
“Yeah, I had a really good start and I had to lift just after the start because it was such a good start and then I got kind of squeezed in between two cars. But other than that I positioned the car really nicely and I think made my way forwards and I think I could have got 5th today. I think I was 1.5 seconds behind George, we should have tried to undercut him. But when we missed that opportunity then I was miles behind after that.”
The seven-time world champion then acknowledged the boost in his confidence and admitted that the current pace of the car is not good enough for a podium finish. He said:
“I think this weekend built a lot on my confidence with the car. Definitely it’s still not 100% comfortable in the car. Ultimately that’s kind of an alien driving style with a car that I’m not 100% comfortable with, but I think overall our performance was fairly decent. I think we obviously don’t have the pace of the cars much further ahead, so competing for top three is off the cards for a while, but we keep pushing and trying to extract more.”
Hamilton explained that more track time has been adding to his confidence.
“I think what’s clear for me is that I know I’ve been driving this car all year long, but in my previous years I was a part of a car that you’re evolving over time and you’re comfortable with it, you know the driving style inside and out, and I think this year I’m arriving at the track and having to apply this new driving style that is still alien to me, it doesn’t feel natural, to a car that’s how it likes to work.
“Through the race I’m just getting better and better and faster and faster and I’m unlocking in that and gaining confidence bit by bit, but that’s not there early on in the weekend to really be able to harness it. If we were to be qualifying now, I think I would have been quite a bit quicker, but that’s all a part of it. Hopefully next year it’s not a driving style that’s alien to me, hopefully I can go back a little bit towards what I was used to and…”
Hamilton and his teammate Charles Leclerc were seen driving side-by-side after the race to pay tribute to the Tifosi who were present at Monza. When asked about the lap with Leclerc, the 40-year-old driver said:
“I used to do that when I was at Mercedes, so I thought it would be really special to do, so I pulled up alongside Charles. Ultimately it was just to really show solidarity, to show our gratitude to Tifosi, because they really, really show up in full force this weekend.
“They’re here so early and so late every day. Last night they were outside until like 3am, and they’re there in the morning, so the support from them is absolutely phenomenal and something I’ll never forget, and I’ll take it.”
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