‘I’m doing everything I can to be ready for race one’
Hamilton is under no illusions how big the size of the challenge is in front of him. Whereas he had months and months of testing ahead of his F1 debut with McLaren and three pre-season tests to get up to speed with his following team Mercedes, the Briton will have just 1.5 days of running in current machinery in Bahrain before he heads to Australia for the first round of the season.
“What I know is that the testing is more limited than ever before but fortunately, I’ve had a good bit of time in the car,” he said, the Briton having done a private test at Fiorano in a 2023 car, two more days of running in a 2023 car at Barcelona, a run in a modified 2024-car at Barcelona with a Monza-spec low downforce rear wing and a handful of laps in the 2025 car on a filming day at Fiorano.
“I am still acclimatising. It took me six months, I think, in Mercedes to get my first win. Honestly, I don’t know but I’m doing everything I can to be ready for race one.”
A big few days, then, lie in store for Hamilton, who will share driving duties with Leclerc across three days of testing in Bahrain. This will be his first opportunity to start building a rhythm with the car, getting a feel for it on a low and high fuel, understanding how it works its tyres and how the team goes about adding performance, fixing problems and preparing for an assault on the title.
The 40-year-old has joined at a good time, with Ferrari seemingly in the ascendency after their strongest campaign for years last season. If they’ve carried that form through to this year, Hamilton should find himself with a stable, balanced package that can unleash performance to fight at the front.
It’s then down to him to be dynamic and find a way to utilise that speed. We’ll get our first glimpse this week as to how he’ll cope with that challenge.
