Lewis Hamilton has always made it clear that after 12 years at Mercedes his assimilation at Scuderia Ferrari was going to take some time.
His race debut in red proved just how difficult it is for a driver used to operating at his level to parachute into a completely new environment and work with different technology and different people.
The most public evidence was the radio traffic with his engineer Riccardo Adami that we heard during the race. More than once we heard Hamilton say “leave me to it” after he was given some information that he felt he didn’t need.
After he tumbled down the order when staying out on slicks didn’t pay off Hamilton told Adami that they had “missed a big opportunity.”
Lap 14
Adami: “You can use K1 when you’re close”
Hamilton: Leave it to me please
Adami: K1 available
Hamilton: Yes I know, leave it to me pleaseLap 29
Adami offers DRS advice
Hamilton: Yes I know. Leave me to it. I’m learning the car as I go mate, just leave me to it with the DRS. It’s not an issueLap 31
Adami: Try to hold the K1
Hamilton: I’m not close enough. I’m not close enough. When I’m close, I’ll do itLap 49
Hamilton: Thought you said it wasn’t going to rain? Think we missed a big opportunity there. What position am I in, P9 again?
Adami: P9
Hamilton: ****
Following the race he made it clear to the media that he while he was happy to take a punt on staying out, he hadn’t been told that more rain was coming.
“I think Riccardo did a really good job,” he said when asked about the communication issues. “I think we’re learning about each other, bit by bit, after this, we’ll download, we’ll go through all the comments, things I said, and vice versa.
“And generally, I’m not one that likes a lot of information in the race, unless I need it, or I’ve asked for it. But he did his best today, and we’ll move forwards.”
Team boss Fred Vasseur acknowledged that things could be improved.
“We need to find a better way to communicate between the car and the pitwall,” said the Frenchman. “But we will learn from this one, and it’s not an issue.”
“The team works completely differently. The data is upside down compared to what I’m used to. I don’t understand it all”
The relationship between Hamilton and his Mercedes engineer Peter Bonnington was so close after working together for a dozen years that they could pretty much finish each other’s sentences.
It’s hardly surprising that it will take time for him to get anywhere close to having that sort of telepathic rapport with Adami.
However, the learning curve is not just about Adami understanding what Hamilton wants from the car and what kind of information he needs in the cockpit, it’s also the fact that the way the car works is so alien compared with what Hamilton is used to.
Hamilton’s steep learning curve
On Thursday in Australia he made an interesting observation about the difference between his previous and current power units.
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“I’m still learning this new car that’s quite a lot different from what I’ve driven my whole career,” he noted. “In the sense of the Mercedes power coming to the Ferrari power, it’s something quite new – different vibration, different feel, different way of working.
“The whole team works completely differently. I was just sitting looking at last year’s race traces, and it’s upside down compared to the previous ones, what I’ve been used to. I don’t understand it all.”
Carlos Sainz, who has made the opposite power unit swap, agreed that he faced a similar problem.
After qualifying eighth on Saturday – right behind team-mate Charles Leclerc – Hamilton made it clear that he has much to learn about how to get the best out of the SF-25.
“We’ve been just improving every single lap, session-on-session,” he said. “Big learning curve this weekend, the car was so much different from the moment I left the pitlane, just feeling so much different than I’ve ever experienced here.
“And it’s been a lot slower process for me to really build confidence in the car. And if you look at the high-speed everywhere, I’ve been down all weekend to Charles, who just had it from the get-go, from just the minute he went out, he knew what the car does.
“And for me, I was just building up to that through the weekend, and I think I got a lot closer towards it in the end. And to be that close to Charles in my first qualifying session in the same car against a great qualifier, I’m pretty happy with that.”
Stark differences to Mercedes
Expanding on the areas where he was struggling he added: “From braking, just through corner balance is a lot different to what I had. Mechanical balance shift that you have is much, much different to what I had in the previous car.
“And the high-speed balance, the low-speed balance, is quite a shift. So she behaves a little bit different.”
Hamilton can’t judge how long it might take him to feel comfortable in the car.
“I really don’t know. Honestly, I thought I was further along than I was, and then I got here and [practice 1], I was like, ‘Jesus, I’ve still got a way to go!’ There’s still a ton of tools that keep popping out, like ‘hey, what about this? I’ve never tried that. What does it do?’
“And it’s one thing saying it, but actually going out and feeling it… That’s what I’m just learning really, bit by bit. I think we did some good work when trying to move the car forward.
“When you have a problem in the car and you come in normally, when you’ve got the experience, you can say, okay, that’s this is where I want to go with it.
“But I don’t know which tool to use at the moment, so I’m heavily relying, for the first time, on my engineers, and they’ve done a great job. In the past, I would say, ‘Bono, this is what I want, that setting, this setting’, and I can’t do that at the moment.”
Rain added to the pressure
In that context the last thing Hamilton needed was a wet race adding to the challenge he faced on Sunday, despite his acknowledged mastery of such conditions.
“I’ve never driven the car in the wet – I don’t even know where the wet switch is really,” he said after qualifying. “I don’t know which buttons I’ve got to switch for tomorrow. So that’s going to be new.
“We’re using Brembos [brakes], for example. I don’t think I’ve used them for a long time. So how the Brembos behave in the wet, I don’t know if they’re glazed, what settings I’m going to have to use with this car? It’s all different.
“I’ve got three laps [to the grid] to learn the car in wet and then get out into the race. I’m going actually, for the first time in the wet in an uncomfortable position, because I’ve never driven this car, so it’s going to be a shock to the system when I get out there. I’m going to be learning on the fly and just giving everything.”
Weekend verdict
At the end of a frantic afternoon he reiterated how much he still has to learn.
“It felt like I was in the deep, deep end today,” he said.“Everything is new. First time driving this car in the rain, the car was behaving a lot different to what I’ve experienced in the past, the power unit, all the steering functions, all the things that their throwing to you, you’re trying to juggle all these new things.
“I didn’t have any confidence today unfortunately, so I’m going to make some changes next week to the car, the set-up. Today was just rear stability, particularly on the power, with lots of snaps. I was nearly in the wall most of the time.”
Ferrari’s pitstop error
The rain in the latter stages of the race presented an opportunity for those who got it right – and the biggest winner was Hamilton’s replacement Kimi Antonelli.
Tenth and a couple of places behind Lewis before the rain triggered pitstop mayhem, the Italian came in at just the right time, and was propelled up the order to an eventual fourth.
Lewis briefly led by staying out, but a stop for inters was inevitable, and he fell back down the order.
“They said it’s just a short shower. So I was like, ‘I’m going to hold it out’. And the rest of the track was dry. So I was ‘I’m going to stick it out as long as I can, I can keep it on the track’. And then they didn’t say more was coming.
“And all of a sudden more was coming. So I think I was just lacking that bit of information at the end.”
