Lewis Hamilton driving the Ferrari SF-25 during Bahrain Grand Prix practice
Lewis Hamilton experienced the upgraded Ferrari SF-25 for the first time in Bahrain practice
Ferrari arrived at the Bahrain Grand Prix armed with an upgraded floor among a suite of early alterations to their SF-25.
And Lewis Hamilton has given the thumbs up, confirming that Ferrari’s upgrades are “definitely working” after the opening day of track action in Bahrain.
Ferrari upgrades working: Lewis Hamilton one to watch in Bahrain?
After a rocky start to the F1 2025 campaign for Ferrari – the team P4 in the Constructors’ standings and already 76 points behind leaders McLaren – the Scuderia are looking to boost their SF-25 challenger with the introduction of a redesigned floor, floor edges and diffuser for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The opening practice session was not particularly representative with scorching heat leading to widespread balance and grip issues across the grid, and by the end of FP2, Charles Leclerc was the highest-ranking Ferrari in P4 – half a second off the pace of session-topper Oscar Piastri in the McLaren – with Hamilton P8 and a second off the pace.
“Same old Fridays,” Hamilton reflected after FP2.
“It was fun. Quite difficult in the morning, as always, with the temperature being so high. The grip was terrible on the hard tyre for the first run. There’s quite a big shock from hard to soft, which was much better.
“But we made some changes, and the car felt pretty decent then in [F]P2.”
And so asked what the main focus is for Ferrari at this point going into qualifying and the race, Hamilton added: “Just consistency. Just pulling the laps together, having a car that’s easy to drive and that’s consistent through the lap.
“At the moment, it’s a bit different between low, medium and high [speed], as you often have, and so we’re just trying to finesse it, trying to tweak it, and then make sure that we have good long run pace, because that’s where you need to be strong here in particular.”
But, onto the killer question. Will these Ferrari upgrades prove a success with these missions in mind?
In a huge boost for the Scuderia, Hamilton suggested so.
“The upgrades are definitely working,” he confirmed. “And big, big thank you to everyone back home for working so hard on bringing the upgrades, because it’s never an easy thing. It’s a lot of work that goes on in the windtunnel and a lot of work that goes on in fabricating and putting together these floors.
“So, it’s just good to see that we’re taking steps forwards, and yeah, we’re trying to now extract more from it.
“I hope that we can make the right steps overnight into tomorrow.”
Leave a Reply