Despite a number of issues, not least the double disqualification in Shanghai, Lewis Hamilton insists that it is in Ferrari that he trusts.
Increasingly, the media, even dedicated F1 media, appears to be going down the route of Drive to Survive, talking of driver feuds where they don’t exist and discontent when it doesn’t exist.
Despite his ‘dream move’ to Ferrari, which initially went down so well with the media, when the seven-time world champion failed to win on his debut the tide quickly began to turn, and other than issues with the car, out of context radio messages suggested that all was not well between Hamilton and his team.
While the pressure eased following his victory in the Shanghai Sprint, it returned with full force following his, and his teammate’s, disqualification from the Grand Prix.
Much like Lando Norris, Hamilton is getting tired of the way in which the media is spinning things.
“I saw someone said something about whether I’m losing faith in the team, which is complete rubbish,” he told reporters. “I have absolute 100% faith in this team,” he insisted.
“There was obviously a huge amount of hype at the beginning of the year,” he continued. “I don’t know if everyone was expecting us to be winning from race one and winning the championship in our first year. That wasn’t my expectation.
“I know that I’m coming into a new culture, a new team and it’s going to take time.”
Asked about the rollercoaster start to his season he said: “It’s a combination of probably several different things, but I think mostly just pinning the set-up.
“I told you that I’m still learning about this car, so I still haven’t tested every item that they have yet.
“Ultimately, I made the wrong decision on set-up for the Saturday going into qualifying at the last race, which then I just had to live with for the race,” he admitted. “If we had just left the car probably alone, or actually if the step that we did take had been an improvement, I think we could have qualified in the top three, which would then have had a much different result, most likely.
“But that wasn’t the case, and it was really difficult to drive from the moment we went out in qualifying, and then it was the same balance on a Sunday, so we just had to persevere with it.”
Ironically, the driver he ‘replaced’, Carlos Sainz, is also having problems with his new team. The Spaniard has – much like Liam Lawson – said he needs more time to acclimatise himself with his new car after his time with Ferrari. Asked if he is encountering the same problem, somehow in reverse, Hamilton said: “I really don’t know. I don’t feel like I’m driving this like I drove my last car.
“For me, it’s just understanding, as I said, the technical side,” he continued. “It’s the understanding of all the tools that I have.
“It likes to be driven differently, but also I think there is a general lack of understanding of what we do back there from the outside. Outside of the garage, I think most people completely underestimate what we actually do and when we’re talking about set-up and the changes that we’re making, all the different graphs that you’re looking at for aero through corner balance, mechanical balance, floor balance, all these different things that we’re trying to play with and finesse through the weekend.”
