Ferrari on Alert: How Hamilton's Observations Could Spell Trouble
Mar.17 - All the pre-season hype about Lewis Hamilton's sensational move and world championship aspirations fizzled in Melbourne as the red cars finished P8 and P10.
Drivers' and constructors' championship leaders McLaren, however, are not celebrating just yet. "We haven't really seen what Ferrari can do yet," team boss Andrea Stella warned.
Indeed, it was a scrappy weekend for the Maranello based team, with boss Frederic Vasseur insisting multiple "mistakes" hid the true potential of the 2025 car.
But Hamilton spoke about having to adapt his driving style.
"I see this as a very dangerous sign," former F1 driver Christian Danner told RTL. "Because no one has ever really managed to adapt their driving style.
"It could be a pretty tough season for Lewis."
Early signs of trouble and tension between Hamilton and his new race engineer, following years with Peter 'Bono' Bonnington at Mercedes, were also evident.
"We learned a lot from this weekend, because we made mistakes," Vasseur admits. "We need to improve the communication and understand what Lewis needs in terms of communication."
40-year-old Hamilton, however, sees a bigger problem.
"McLaren and Red Bull are incredibly fast," said the Briton. "We have a lot of work ahead of us. In China, I'll try to take a different approach to the setup."
Charles Leclerc, who with P8 finished two places ahead of Hamilton, commented: "If you look at the pace of the McLaren today, it was incredible. And even a lot faster than when they took pole."
Former F1 driver Timo Glock said on Sky Deutschland: "Of the top teams, Ferrari was the clear flop in Australia."
However, even Mercedes is already considering a strategic early shift of resources from the 2025 car to the all-new project for 2026 - effectively giving up on winning this year's championship.
"I would like to be a bit closer to Red Bull and McLaren, but this is the reality," said team boss Toto Wolff.
"Now we need a few more races to see if we can get close and if it is worth putting our resources into this car. But it's just the first weekend, so we'll find out."
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Ferrari was indeed a flop compared to the other top teams, but at least they weren't the only team to mess up strategy as Alpine & VCARB also delayed the intermediate return unnecessarily excessively, which consequently meant zero points for either of them, while Ferrari at least managed to salvage some minor points.
BUT Ferrari are expected to Win, Alpine and Vcar arent, they have probably the biggest budget, really good facilities , and a 7 times WDC onboard, i cant think all the excuses like "im still learning" will go down to well with the Media if they arent at least finishing regularly 3rd, because if this years difficult next year will be a nightmare, are we seriously saying that Max wouldn't have qualified that Ferrari higher up?
Valid point.
So what’s wrong with Charles the super fast qualifier?
Next week will be hot, then we will see if Ferrari have built a good car and who is faster out of the 2, dyo think it will be Charlie or Lulu?
Mid to high-20s for the time being, so we'll see how Ferrari copes.
Logic says Charlie will be faster given his experience in the car but who knows.Max in the Ferrari? We will never know.
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